


Dance of Masks

by Yogurt_Tea



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Chapter 5 Spoilers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Spoilers for everything tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-03-28 10:27:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13902111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yogurt_Tea/pseuds/Yogurt_Tea
Summary: “I should’ve known nothing would seem nearly as fun after such a fun killing game. But to see that one of my participants can so easily forget it all! Maybe I should’ve made it more entertaining.” Ouma’s expression grows more warped and his smile cuts into his cheeks.The expression is so drained of humanity Kaito can’t help but think it’s practiced. He can’t help but feel he’s on the edge of uncovering something huge. He just needs to push more.~~V3 Chapter 5, but with more hope.





	1. Chapter 1

Kaito doesn’t know when, but he fell asleep at one point, or maybe he just passed out.

When Kaito opens his eyes he is greeted with an unfamiliar ceiling decorated with pipes. He jerks into a sitting position before his memory returns. The memories of the outside world hit him like a punch in the gut. Everything is gone. He takes a few deep breaths, he can’t focus on that right now. There’s more pressing matters at hand that should take his attention rather than wallowing in his own sorrows.

The first thing Kaito does is try and see if he can fit through the window. About ten seconds after a poorly thought out idea, he finds that, no he cannot fit anything past his head. Without thinking he yells out the window.

“Hey! Is anyone out there?”

He gets no response other than the dull footsteps of the Exisals in the distance. He sits himself back down onto the ground and doesn’t let himself be too disappointed. He doesn’t know what time it is, but he doubts it’s nighttime yet. He and the others just went to see the outside world this morning. He couldn’t have been asleep for that long. Even so, no matter how short it has been, he’s already wasted enough time here. He wants nothing more than to just reassure his sidekicks that everything will be okay.

They have no idea what has happened to him or if he’s alright. He curses. He’s supposed to be the hero of the story, the one the rest of them can count on and leave their worries with. He isn’t supposed to add to their worries, not at a time like this or ever.

He continues to look throughout the room for anything to aid in escape. He even looks in the toilet and despite looking super high-tech, the toilet proves to be just that. A toilet.

He sits on the ground cross-legged in a huff. He swears as soon as he sees that stupid shit again he’s going to deck him. Just the thought gives him some peace. Although, trying to punch the short boy is how he got into this mess in the first place. He drums his fingers on his knee. He should probably set aside punching for now, it would only cause regret later

He lies down on his back and closes his eyes. He doesn’t have time to be stuck here. He’s Kaito Momota! Luminary of the Stars! Everyone is relying on him. Especially his sidekicks. They were devastated by the sight of the outside world. They all looked so hopeless. A mixture of pain, confusion and loss evident through all of them. Something he understood all too well. He didn’t help them at all by charging ahead. In retrospect, it was a pretty idiotic move but he couldn’t cope with the idea that they really were trapped here forever. And he couldn’t just break down when so many people were relying on him.

He had been so afraid of the idea of being trapped in this school forever, and now his worst fear is reality. He wanted to punch something, just to get rid of the horrible feeling in his chest.

That doesn’t matter now, he just has to move forward from here on out and escape the mastermind’s imprisonment. The whole thing about the outside world is probably just another elaborate lie. Saihara’s probably already seen through his lies, he and Harumaki wouldn’t have given up yet. They’re probably coming up with a way to help him escape right now. They were counting on him to be strong, they were his sidekicks and he promised to always be there for them. Even if the world isn’t how they remembered it to be, it’s not over yet, they still have to believe in the future. If not, what else do they have?

Kaito is so caught up in his own thoughts that he doesn’t realize he’s not alone until he feels something hit him in the chest. He opens his eyes in surprise to see the object that hit him is a filled plastic bag. Ouma had apparently unlocked the door, entered, walked practically next to him and Kaito didn’t notice until he literally dropped something on him. Ouma is just standing over him staring, uncharacteristically silent and expressionless. He is waiting for Kaito to do something.

Kaito doesn’t disappoint. In a swell of rage he swings his arm to trip the bastard, to which Ouma simply hops back out of his reach, obviously expecting something like this.

A smile adorns his face, “Aw Momota-chan, I thought after your three day nap you’d be happy to see someone, even me!” Kaito’s blood freezes, he’d been unconscious for three days?

Ouma laughs happily in response to his mortified face, “Oops, that was a lie! It’s only been a couple of hours, or has it? Anyways I brought you some stuff. Don’t worry! I put needles inside everything! Just for you!”

Kaito’s anger returns, he starts getting up from the floor “Shut the hell up! Why would I accept anything from you?”

Ouma simply blinks, still grinning “Are you really that stupid to refuse something you didn’t even look at?” Ouma’s expression shifts to somewhere between bored and annoyed, “I didn’t realize you had such a big ego to go with that itty-bitty brain of yours.” Ouma takes a couple steps backwards toward the door.

“I don’t care what someone like you thinks!” he spits the words with hate.

Ouma sighs, “I knew you were boring, but I didn’t realize you were this predictable. I have sooo many more important things to do rather then waste my time on you.” he sounds more tired than anything, “Sweet dreams space cowboy.” Ouma quickly slips through the door just as Kaito lunges for him. As he reaches for the doorknob he hears the muffled sound of a lock sliding into place.

It doesn’t deter Kaito. Only after jiggling the doorknob for a solid ten seconds does he gives up. A huff of defeat and he retreats back towards the center of the room. The bag Ouma threw at him is still untouched on the ground.

With nothing better to do, Kaito picks up the ‘gift’ Ouma left him. He looks inside the bag. Inside is a sealed water bottle, and what appears to be a fair sized lunch box. He’s half-convinced whatever’s going to be inside the lunchbox is some jack-in-the-box type shit or just eight raw onions, which he would have no choice to eat. When he opens the lid nothing splatters all over his face, instead, he sees food. It’s much better than he expected. Inside is an overabundance of PB&J sandwiches, and two cans of soda. The sandwiches don’t look especially amazing or anything, but the fact they don’t look that nice implies Ouma was the one to make them. His stomach grumbles. After checking to make sure there really weren’t any needles hidden in his food, he put aside his reservations and began eating.

He takes a bite of the sandwich. While just about everything Ouma did aggravated him in some shape and form, he had believed that there was some good in him- even if he got on every last one of Kaito’s nerves at times. It’s just the shift in Ouma’s personality felt too sudden, uncomfortably so. Not so much of a reveal, but more like a breaking point.

He huffs again in annoyance and cracks open the soda can. He stares at the door. It’s stupid to think that the door would suddenly be unlocked, but its not like there’s much else he can do. He cautiously tip-toes toward the door. It has been a few minutes since Ouma left the room and he hasn’t heard anything on the other side of the door since. He grips the doorknob and turns it, only to find it is locked, just like before. He jiggles it a couple more times for good measure. It’s not going to budge anytime soon. He doesn’t even know why he tried. Almost on cue he hears giggling from the other side of the door.

“Sorry Momota-chan! As much as I would love to see your face, I just can’t seem to figure out how this lock works. But you can keep me company while I try to figure it out!”

Kaito groans. Even the unnerving quiet would be better than listening to Ouma, “Why would I want to keep my tormentor company?”

Ouma hums in thought for a second, “On second thought, you’re too predictable to be any fun!” he sighs, “I wish Saihara-chan was here instead, at least he’s not an idiot.”

“Hey! Don’t call me an idiot!”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You regurgitate the same lines all the time, idiot.” Kaito hears the other huff from the other side of the door, “Ugh, I don’t think I can listen to you any longer, I’m leaving.”

“Good riddance!” Kaito shouts. There’s no response.

He grumbles and sets himself down onto the floor. Kaito supposes it’s a fair bit into the night, but he can’t be sure. He’s not tired and the cold floor isn’t exactly the most inviting, but preserving strength and sleeping is really all he can do at this point. He takes off his jacket and puts it on the floor before lying down on it. A minimal improvement, but still better nonetheless.

Kaito sighs, “What are you going to do now?” he mumbles to himself.

He speaks for both being confined to a bathroom and about escaping the school. He doesn’t want to believe the outside world is truly gone. Ouma is a liar, and a fantastic one at that. If anyone would be able to make the most unrealistic lie believable, it would be him. The thought gives him unexpected comfort. He’ll be able to escape with the others and they’ll find out what is a lie and what is the truth.

He hopes Harumaki’s doing alright. The last time he saw her, she looked fully prepared to take on any consequence in order to save him. He couldn’t see too well from his position, but he thinks she was on the verge of crying. His capture didn’t help her to cope with the outside world. He told her that when they left the school he would help her to live a different life than the one she was forced into. He promised that she would have a hope upon leaving the school. Then that was taken away from her upon seeing the outside world. Kaito getting captured amplified all that despair and pain, to the point that Saihara was the one who had to calm her down.

Saihara. How is Saihara doing? If Harumaki was at her breaking point then Saihara couldn’t be far off either. He has a tendency to blame himself even when it’s very obvious it’s not his fault. Fuck, what if he is blaming himself for Kaito’s own stupidity in getting captured? He curses, knowing Saihara, it’s very probable. That’s the last thing Saihara needs- guilt on top of utter hopelessness. And Kaito’s not even there to tell him to square up and move on.

Man, what type of pathetic hero was he?

It’s not much longer before he drifts into a dreamless sleep. When he next awakens, it’s because his body decides to start hacking up his lungs.

It jolts him right out of his relaxed stupor and he’s already sitting up and covering his mouth with his hand. It isn’t surprising when he pulls his hand back to see it’s covered in blood. He quickly moves over to the toilet. If he has to stay in this room, he would rather not have a stain of blood on the floor to remind him that he’s dying. No. Not dying. He’s just not healthy. He just needs to stay healthy so that he can fulfill his dreams of space when they leave. He needs to be healthy not just for himself but for his sidekicks. They have so many burdens on their shoulders and he needs to help them lift their burdens, not add to them.

It is an agonizing few minutes. And he wonders if he’ll ever stop coughing. All he can taste is the sickeningly metal taste of his own blood, something that always make him want to vomit. His head starts to throb in pain, only being amplified with every cough. Sparks dance across his vision but he refuses to pass out from blood loss and choke on his own blood like an alcoholic.

The toilet’s water is completely opaque when he finally stops coughing. He tries to catch his breath, and ignore the deep pain in his gut. It has never been this bad before, he’s never been coughing for more than a minute at a time, or this much. The last time there was this much blood was after Gonta’s execution, right in front of everyone. He can’t believe he let his friends see this side of him. It went down exactly as he feared, no matter how much he tried to shrug it off, more blood would interrupt him. The last thing they needed after an execution was evidence there would be another friend dead soon. It is only because his sidekicks have so much faith in him that they trusted when he said it was just temporary. Or at the very least, they didn’t push the topic afterwords. The only problem is that if he gets caught coughing up blood again, he’ll have to tell them. And he couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t put that burden on their shoulders. Not just Harumaki and Saihara, but all of his classmates. It is his job to be the brazen optimist after all.

He cleans the blood staining his face and hands with the rest of the water bottle given to him. He wipes down drops on the floor and on the edges of the toilet with toilet paper and flushes it all away. In a matter of minutes the room looks just like it did when he first awoke.

He settles himself back down onto his jacket and tries to get comfortable, ignoring the pain and the drops of blood that fell onto the jacket’s galactic pattern when he started coughing.

The next time he wakes is of his own accord. He doesn’t see any blood on the floor or on the toilet. The bloody fit is nothing more than a dream. He is going to be alright, it doesn’t matter that the pain in his body is worse than ever. He gets up from his jacket and stretches. He’s fine. He shrugs the jacket on in a quick motion, not looking at it, not wanting to see the bloody drops he knew would be there. If he never sees it, he can still try to convince himself it was all a dream.

He spots more sandwiches stacked on top of the lunchbox next to more water bottles, noticeably closer to the door. He is all too glad to focus on something else other than his nightmare.

He approaches the food. The sandwiches are PB&J again. He groans. He doesn’t have any personal grudges against peanut butter sandwiches- more the opposite honestly- but he suspects that his future meals will look suspiciously similar to this one. He can appreciate a less-than-average PB&J sandwich, but even he has limits.

Belatedly he realizes that in order for there to be new supplies in the room, Ouma had to have been in and out while he was sleeping. It’s disturbing how quietly the Supreme Leader could move. Either that or Kaito just slept like a rock.

Regardless, he might as well eat, even if he has no idea what time it is. He could be eating a 4am sandwich but at this point he couldn’t really bother caring about it. Halfway through eating the sandwich, he realizes he’s not really hungry. He stuffs the rest of the sandwich in his jacket pocket, not thinking about how the peanut butter would smear the pockets.

When he pockets the sandwich, he notices an oddity. The door isn’t shut all the way. Ouma left it slightly agape. He gingerly steps over to the door, wondering if maybe this is his chance to escape.

He grips the doorknob and finds that it twists It really is unlocked. Odd, he doubted Ouma would overlook something as simple as this, he is anything but careless.

He takes a breath, and pushes it open as slow as he can. Except it doesn’t open. The door just rattles quietly. He spots the cause of noise and sees a chain sliding lock keeping it shut. Anger brews in Kaito, of course Ouma would do this. Give him a bit of hope before snatching it away. The door is open just wide enough to peek through the gap. He sees Ouma standing on the platform of the press control panel. Staring directly at him.

Even from this distance he can see Ouma’s face crack into a wide grin. Ouma hops down the stairs of the press control panel and bounds towards him. Ouma is right in front of the door now, standing so Kaito can see him through the crack, “Momota-chan, you’re alive! Here I thought you just kicked the bucket and left me all by myself.” he frowns before smiling again, “Just kidding! That was a lie, only the good die young.” the smile and sparkle in his eyes are so well placed it looks real.

“Quit screwing around and tell me why the hell are you’re keeping me here!”

The grin on his face changes to a pout, “Why? I thought it was obvious! I’ve been feeling soooo lonely since nobody wants to spend time with me.” he crosses his arms like a child throwing a tantrum, “That’s why I thought it’d be better to bring someone here instead.”

Kaito doesn’t know why he thought he could ask a question and get an answer. Ouma did as he pleases, and he obviously enjoys watching other people struggle to keep up with him.

“We both know that’s a lie! You’re probably keeping me here for some twisted purpose. I just don’t know what yet.” his voice lowers into a growl. There’s so many things he could say, he had so many paths, but would any of them lead him elsewhere?

Ouma slumps over, crocodile tears glistening his eyes, “You don’t believe me? I get lonely too! I thought you were the one who wanted to believe in everyone. B-b-but you won’t believe me. You’re s-so cruel! You’d believe in killer girl over meeeee!!” Ouma starts bawling with heavily exaggerated sobs.

The conversation is running in circles, “Cruel? How can you say that when you’re the one who let this happen?” a loud thud echoes as Kaito bangs his hand against the chained door, Ouma stops his tears. “You treat our lives, my friends lives as toys of some twisted game! You sacrificed Gonta and Iruma just so you could live and continue to torment us. Not only them, you ravaged Akamatsu’s and Tojo’s psyche to the point of murder. You took enjoyment in everyone’s suffering you sick freak!” Ouma hasn’t moved from his spot.

Ouma’s smile reappears, brighter and more crazed than before, “Ding ding! That’s right! They were so entertaining! Noble deaths willing to sacrifice another’s life! There’s something especially captivating about that. And then letting Gonta take the blow, that was fun! Then I decided to have the grand finale!”

It is creepy how he says it. Detached, like they weren’t alive and human. Kaito is leaning against the door, forehead pressed in the small gap. Normally at this point Kaito would have just tried to ram the door down- the chain doesn’t look strong. But this isn’t normal, his energy levels are at record-breaking lows. While he tries to convince himself it’s simply emotional exhaustion, he knows his sickness is getting worse.

No. He’s not getting worse. He’s fine. Suddenly it doesn’t matter that all his body wants to do is collapse. Almost to prove it to himself, he sticks his arm through the narrow gap and manages to get a grip on Ouma’s scarf. To Ouma’s credit, despite being cornered, he doesn’t react the slightest. In fact, despite the circumstances, he just starts giggling.

“Oops! I lied again!”

Kaito’s about to respond ‘No shit sherlock.’ but he bites the words down. Despite how flippantly Ouma says it, at this distance, he can see circles under his eyes. How long have they been there?

When Kaito doesn’t say anything, Ouma continues,

“’What did I lie about’ you ask? Well! Before you punch me again, you should know I lied about being the mastermind!”

Kaito can’t help it, he guffaws, “The fuck, you expect me to believe that with no explanation?” even as he says it his mind is already starting to question how much truth there is to his words.

Ouma hums and tugs a loose strand of hair, “If you did, you would be dumber than I thought.” he shuts his eyes, smile growing, “Just listen. I know it’s hard for you to listen to something other than your own voice but just try and don’t interrupt until-”

“Just get to the point.” Kaito’s tired, he’s tired and wants answers.

Surprisingly, all Ouma does is rolls his eyes at him, “This killing spree is just a game. I took the role of mastermind to win. Simple as that.”

“You think I’m just going to believe such a convenient lie?”

“See, it’s because I’m so smart that this conversation is happening. Without proper preparation that would’ve been the exact problem. Nobody would take me seriously. After the virtual world fiasco all of you would be more than happy to blame me. When I showed you the outside world and told you I’m the mastermind everything fell into place. I’m the winner!” Ouma’s grinning again, all too smug for Kaito’s taste.

Kaito waits for Ouma to elaborate further. He doesn’t. He’s just staring at Kaito, smile still in place, waiting for him to say something in response to his victory.

Slowly, words form, “So in the end you only wanted to win, you never gave a shit about anyone other than yourself.” he growls. If Ouma is telling the truth, it still doesn’t change much. It just means they still have another mastermind to deal with.

Ouma giggles, “Who knows? It’s all up to your own interpretation. I could be lying after all.” he says it in a sing-song voice.

The only response Kaito can do is shake Ouma with his one hand, “Are you happy now? Are you happy that you won?” questions never get him anywhere and yet Kaito still asks.

Ouma’s face scrunches up in a yawn, seemingly unaffected, “I know it’s hard, but can you at least try to think before you talk? It’s kinda like talking to a wall.”

Kaito lets go of Ouma’s scarf and pushes him away. Ouma stumbles a bit before easily catching his balance again. It’s clear to Kaito that he’s not going to open up. He just can’t believe anyone would willingly aim for this twisted goal. Ouma is always hiding, he’s always hiding through his lies. He can’t believe someone is really this twisted. Because of that he can’t let this go. If Ouma’s going to be stubborn then so will he.

“Like hell you’re happy! Look at where you are. How could you possibly be happy with this? You win some stupid game but what does that win you when you’re all alone in a cold hangar with nobody?” his eyes lock directly with the Supreme Leader.

Kaito is still angry as all hell at Ouma. He knows that he could never forget what Ouma’s done. Even so, he’s a stubborn optimist if nothing else. There’s something hopeful in him that wants to reach out. And in the moment it takes for Ouma to respond, he looks.

He searches Ouma’s expression for... something. A look of regret. A look of surprise. Of thought. Even just a moment of blankness. Just something to prove that there is something he can use to believe Ouma is lying about using them only to win a game. Something to see that Ouma isn’t so far gone that even Kaito can’t reach him.

He sees nothing.

Ouma’s smile doesn’t faze or freeze in the slightest, and the only change in emotion is to snicker in response, “Aw Momota-chan. You might not be smart but you’re not nobody.”

It takes Kaito longer to respond, to actually process the insult, “You know what I meant!” he knows Ouma’s just trying to rile him up, but he can’t help but be affected.

“Yup I do! And I say you’re being self-depreciating!” he’s smiling. He’s enjoying this.

“No I’m not! Stop being stubborn!” how could he act like this, like nothing has happened?

“Uh yeah you are. Come onnn, I am so not in the mood for this. Do you even know what time it is?”

“That doesn’t matter!” it’s not what’s important.

“It’s time for good little space boys to be quiet and not question things they don’t understand!” there’s an edge to Ouma’s voice. Said teasingly yet sending a clear message of ‘don’t push it.’

Kaito understands his message, and immediately does the opposite.

“I’m not shutting up until you tell me what the hell it is you wanted to accomplish with this!” Kaito is shouting at this point. He’s getting somewhere now. He has to push this, because Ouma just proved there is something underneath his lies.

It takes a few seconds before Ouma responds, “...Hmm, even after spending so much time with you, you really are just boring.” there’s no energy to his words. Suddenly the circles under his eyes are so clear Kaito doesn’t know how he missed them before.

“You’re deflecting! There’s more to this than you’re telling me. You’re just naive enough to believe you can’t trust anyone!”

“Boring, boring, boring!” aggravation flickers in Ouma’s features, before quickly painted over by a smile, “I should’ve known nothing would seem nearly as fun after such a fun killing game. But to see that one of my participants can so easily forget it all! Maybe I should’ve made it more entertaining.” his expression grows more warped and his smile cuts into his cheeks.

The expression is so drained of humanity Kaito can’t help but think it’s practiced. He can’t help but feel he’s on the edge of uncovering something huge. He just needs to push more.

“Our lives aren’t entertainment! You’re the stupid one if you expect me to believe that you believe that!” Kaito says it without really thinking, but something shifts in Ouma.

Ouma’s smile drops, “I really can’t stand talking to someone like you. You can never get it through your thick skull that what you see is the truth. I may be a liar but at least I don’t delude myself into a false hope.” Ouma quickly turns his back to him and begins to walk away.

No. Kaito can’t let Ouma can’t walk away now. He feels he’s on the brink of finally reaching past his mask. He doesn’t know why he thinks it’s working now. He’s tried to reach out so many times before and it never worked. But it doesn’t matter as to why. He just knows he can’t let Ouma walk away.

“Hey! You can’t just walk away now, get back over here! Ouma!” Ouma doesn’t show any sign of hearing him. He just continues walking towards the hangar doors.

Kaito curses under his breath. Ouma’s going to leave- run away- before Kaito can get through to him. He shoves his hands into his pockets in frustration. He feels something sticky in his left pocket. Kaito’s not really sure why he did what he did next. He really wasn’t thinking and was honestly just desperate. But his fist closed around a pocketed peanut butter sandwich.

He throws the half-eaten sandwich at Ouma’s back. Kaito’s not really sure what he thought it would accomplish, he really wasn’t thinking, he just acted on an impulse. It is pure luck that the sandwich connects to its target. What he didn’t expect was Ouma to almost fall out of pure surprise. He swings his arms to regain his balance, and something pink and circular falls from Ouma’s jacket while he stumbles. It falls onto the floor with a clatter. Kaito gets a good look- it’s an electrobomb- before it explodes. A loud bang echoes throughout the room.

Ouma turns just in time to see the electrobomb explode. His face darkens, “Shit!” his eyes quickly scan the ground to find what Kaito threw at him. He doesn’t look any happier when he sees the half-eaten sandwich,

“Dammit not yet!” Ouma starts to look panicked and takes in a fistful of his own hair. He’s taking in deep breaths, trying to calm down. Kaito’s goal may have been to get emotion out of Ouma, but this isn’t exactly what he wanted to happen. Ouma looks to be on the edge of a breakdown.

Kaito’s ideals dictate that he try to console someone when in distress, even if it’s Ouma, “You can’t do anything while you’re panicked, calm down and breathe.” he tries to lower his voice below shouting, but it’s not easy when trying to be heard from halfway across the hangar through a door gap. It doesn’t matter. Ouma obviously isn’t listening. His face is buried in his hands and he’s not responding.

Just as Kaito’s about to call out to him again, Ouma’s hands lower to reveal a smile,

“Aw, did you think you finally won against the big bad guy Momota-chan? Too bad, I have plenty of those bombs lying around,” he picks up the ruined sandwich, “but I can only keep feeding you for so long. If I were you, I wouldn’t test my patience.”

Kaito isn’t getting through to him. Ouma is just as stubborn as he is, with a firm belief in logic over emotion. And he shows no signs of letting go of that mask.

There were two clear paths Kaito could take here. He could choose what Ouma seems to want him to do, to resist the villain of the story and fight for his friends, to continue the roles they were meant to play.

Or he could keep pushing. He could keep pushing and try to get through to him. He could extend a hand to the lion and keep it there until he either lost his hand or gained his trust. Kaito can get out of here by either fighting or befriending Ouma. If he’s wrong about Ouma, about him hiding a humane side, then he can always resort back to fighting.

Kaito slams against the door again, the chain rattles, “I’ll test your patience as much as I please, you’re just lying anyways!”

Ouma laughs airily, “Oh we’ll see about that.” he turns his back to Kaito, sitting down on the floor and starts to hum to himself. Presumably to drown out the sound of Kaito’s voice.

Kaito opens his mouth to speak again but instead of words he chokes on a familiar metallic taste. His left hand immediately covers his mouth and his other hand slams the door shut. He curses, this is the exact time he needed to continue prodding Ouma. But he couldn’t let anyone see him like this. Weak, vulnerable, pitiful. A cough makes its way up his throat and crimson paints his hand. He should be out there, shouting until Ouma listens. He should be outside of this dark bathroom. He should be with the others. He should be with Saihara and Harumaki.

Instead Kaito is hunched over a toilet, watching his blood drip down and dissipate into the water, watching as the clear water slowly becomes clouded with the last parts of his life.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would anyone believe me when I said I started this fic because I wanted Kaito to give Kokichi a hug?


	2. Chapter 2

Kokichi Ouma is still sitting on the floor from when the electrobomb had fallen. He admits that he overreacted. He only needs one electrobomb to end the game. He hates that doesn’t fully understand why it caused him to panic so much. It was enough of a reaction to cause Momota to change his shouts from demands into awkward comfort. It is evidence that his lie about being deranged may not be entirely false. Insanity is one thing that needs to remain a lie. If he cannot trust his own mind, then he himself would be the one to screw up the best chance any of them will ever have to stopping the killing game.

He is so close to ending this psycho’s fantasy.

The last step is to make Monokuma unintentionally corrupt his own game. To break the game to the point where it cannot continue. Once Monokuma is dragged down and discredited, the mastermind will lose their power. And without someone to lead this parade of death, it will end.

He would strip Monokuma of his omnipotent position and drag him down to the level of a participant. Say there’s a murder when the bomb goes off perchance, Monokuma would be forced to try and piece together the circumstance of the murder just like the rest of them. In the same circumstance, if there’s an abnormal amount of blood under a press for example, it would be natural to assume someone is dead.

In that scenario, Monokuma would have no idea the blood under the press is from Angies lab, taken from the various student council members. The truth would be that there is no victim or blackened. As soon as the trial starts, success would be at hand. Once Monokuma rules a verdict, the game would be broken beyond repair.

Subconsciously his eyes drift over to the hydraulic press. He can still end the killing game. One wasted bomb won’t change that.

Slightly reassured, he stands up. It’s time he visits the idiot and preps him for his role. He’s ready for whatever bullshit Momota throws at him. All Kokichi has to do is convince Momota that there is nothing more to him than being absolutely insane. Then he would chalk everything Kokichi does to being a lunatic, and further Monokuma’s belief that Kokichi’s goal is just to fuck with other people’s heads.

Kokichi skips over to the bathroom door and knocks, “Momota-chan! I have something important to tell you, I’ve finally decided surrender to the great noble hero of the story!” He can’t help keeping the sarcasm out of his voice. It’s for the better anyways, Momota would only grow more suspicious if Kokichi suddenly started acting serious.

There’s no response.

Odd. Momota bites the hook every time Kokichi taunts him. He doesn’t hear movement or any sounds to indicate Momota is in there. Either Momota grew a brain and decided to stay quiet to ambush Kokichi when he opens the door, or he passed out from his sickness.

Passed out. That’s the optimistic way of viewing it. The other end of that train of thought is that he has become the sixth victim.

With a body and the electrobomb active, Monokuma wouldn’t know who the murderer is.

Everything that Kokichi has built up, would work against him. Kokichi would undoubtedly be voted as the blackened- he would do the same in their position. They wouldn’t have evidence to prove his guilt for certain, but there wouldn’t be anything to prove his innocence either. The final decision would be given back to Monokuma.

Nausea overcomes him. He would be giving Monokuma back all his power and more. Monokuma would have the power to execute Kokichi based on his own whims. It is beyond doubt that Monokuma would choose an execution of the Ultimate Supreme Ruler.

Kokichi knocks on the door again, swallowing the urge to scream, “Momota-chan, stop ignoring me! You’re hurting my fragile self-esteem. Don’t you have a conscience somewhere in that muscle head of yours?” There’s still no response.

Why isn’t he responding?

Kokichi isn’t stupid enough to unlock the door. It could just as easily be a trick to escape. He opens the door with the chain lock still in place. The first thing he sees is blood. Through the gap he sees Momota’s lying on his side, back to him, collapsed on the floor. Blood decorates the edges of his clothing.

All he can hear is static and the drumming of his own heart. Momota isn’t moving. Momota’s sickness shouldn’t have reached this extent yet. Earlier Momota was coughing heartily. While the internal bleeding brings up many alarms, his body was still fighting his sickness with great force. Not only that, but Momota himself still had plenty of energy not even an hour ago. Unless Kokichi underestimated how much Momota was hiding how close he was to death. Or the other option. Suicide.

He stops himself. How far gone is his sanity to even start deluding himself that Kaito Momota would commit suicide? There’s nothing in the room that could be used as a weapon anyway. It can’t be certain Momota is even dead. It’s just paranoia jumping to conclusions. He needs to check for certain. Even if Momota is faking unconsciousness, he couldn’t have faked the blood.

Kokichi unlocks the door.

He swallows as he pushes open the door. He doesn’t want another body. But here, it doesn’t matter what he wants. The game just continues relentlessly, claiming life after life. Emotional and psychological torture as entertainment.

Kokichi moves closer than he should. He gets close enough that if Momota wanted, he could snap around and close his hands around his neck like a certain ‘sidekick’ of his. It’s panic now that is closing around his throat. Even this close, he doesn’t see the slow rise and fall of breathing.

Kokichi can’t take it any longer. Impulsively, he grips onto Momota’s arm and shakes him.

The form on the floor groans. Momota is alive. Kokichi releases the breath he’d been holding. But instead of relief, aggravation spikes up.

He really is starting to lose it. He deluded himself to believing Momota was dead, and not only did he start to believe it, he just entered the room and left the door unlocked. And now he’s close enough for Momota to seriously hurt him.

Emotions are a luxury that he couldn’t afford. He releases Momota with a shove. Lying about his intentions would be easy. All he has to do is make sure there’s no way to interpret his actions as him caring.

“Momota-chan get up! Didn’t you ever learn basic manners? It’s rude to ignore someone when they’re talking.”

It’s more difficult than expected to resist the urge to run outside and lock the door. Irritation pricks him in response. He’s being awfully paranoid. He knows what he’s doing, there’s no reason to continually doubt himself. Momota is groggy enough that he wouldn’t be able to grab Kokichi, or rush to the unlocked door.

Momota rolls onto his back and winces as if it hurt him. Kokichi reflexively steps back from the movement.

“I could say the same for you. The hell was so important you had to wake me up?” His voice is weak. Not a good sign.

“I was bored.” He giggles despite still being able to taste bile in his throat. It’s a favorite lie of his. A lie nobody ever questions.

Momota’s face twists up in annoyance, “I figured it’d be something stupid like that,” a pause, “So are you finally going to tell me about why you’re so insistent on being the mastermind?”

Momota is still going on about that? He really is too stupid for his own good.

“I told you that I wanted to win! I don’t play to lose Momota-chan. Don’t worry you’ll see, it’s only a matter of time.”

It’s fun to watch Momota try to figure out something. Especially when he takes Kokichi so seriously. He can almost see the gears turning in Momota’s brain. Judging from his alarmed expression, he’s already assumed something drastic.

Momota starts to stumble to his feet, “Oh hell no.”

And that is his cue to get out.

Kokichi easily evades Momota’s attempt to grab him and a teasing laugh escapes him, “Woow, if you want to catch me Momota-chan you’ll have to actually try.”

He’s so much slower than before. Even the lunge itself was weaker. Kokichi could attribute his slowness to him just waking up, but more likely it is the blood staining his mouth to be the cause of it. Kokichi uses the few seconds it takes Momota to regain his balance to sprint to the door. He passes through the doorway and slams the door shut. The lock clicks in place.

It turns out he didn’t need half the speed he used. Momota’s not even close to stopping him. The door jerks open entire seconds later, stopped midway by the lock.

“Fuck! Ouma- you wouldn’t _dare_.” Momota sticks an arm through the gap, flailing his arm uselessly to try and grab Ouma. It seems Momota’s assumed something very interesting, maybe things were working out better than he thought.

“Oh are you sure about that?” Kokichi murmurs it darkly.

Unbridled rage results another resounding slam on the door, “Don’t screw with me! We are not waiting out in here until another murder occurs! And I sure as hell am not going to let you play this game until we’re the only two people are left!”

Ah, that’s it. Momota believes Kokichi is going to survive the entire game.

Kokichi notes that Momota automatically assumed that he is the one that Kokichi would leave the killing game with. And yet he is still opposed to the idea. Of course Kokichi already offered earlier to the whole group right before giving the electrohammers away. But that could only test if there is someone is as desperate enough to betray their friends right in their face. Offering when the rest of the group isn’t present is an entire different situation, especially when assuming that it would happen with _inaction_ instead of an active betrayal.

It proves that Momota isn’t just talking big about wanting everyone to live. Momota truly hates the killing game. He hates the murders, possibly as much as Kokichi does. Maybe it’s just because he’s already dying that he’s determined to save the remaining students, but it could be what might make him the perfect partner-in-crime. He’s still a dumbass, but even a cooperative idiot would make things run smoother.

Another loud slam to the door brings Kokichi back from his thoughts. Dangerous thoughts that could potentially break everything he’s done. Momota relies too much on his ‘gut feelings’ and his emotions. The emotions that are currently comprised of anger and hate and directed at him.

“Are you listening to me Ouma!? I said I am not going to just stand by while you let them die!” Momota sure is passionate about this.

“Aw, you think they’re still going to go around murdering each other?”

“What? No! There could be another time-limit motive or something that would force them to kill one another! I need to be there for them-”

He continues blabbering about the others but Kokichi stops listening, too caught up in his own thoughts.

It could be his greatest mistake to trust Momota.

Momota is a person who helps others without regard for himself. While part of his nature is truly benevolent, a good portion of that selflessness is undoubtedly to feed Momota’s own hero complex. He is someone who thrives off others depending on him.

And judging from the strained coughs and blood, Momota isn’t the mastermind. That, and he doubts anyone could pull off such a convincing act for so long. Either Kokichi has been tricked by someone so clever to have an entire personality so thought through, or Momota is just a dumbass getting through life. Seeing how there has never been even a moment where Momota had even a moment of a different person, Kokichi is convinced it is the latter.

Even then, trusting Momota puts everything he’s done to reach this point at risk.

He knows that, and yet a part of him still wants to involve Momota. The part of him that is tired of this charade and wanting to have someone else to confide in. To finally not have to say how much he loves the killing game and how he just can’t wait for more of his friends to die.

The electobomb’s effect is shortening with every second. Kokichi has to decide what to do now.

Momota’s still going off, talking something about what if one of his sidekicks commit suicide to prevent a murder. Kokichi interrupts him before he can get too far into detail.

“If another killing happens, then it just means there will be another class trial and things will start heating up again,” it’s child’s play to curve his lips up into a familiar sadistic grin.

Momota looks like he’s about to start shouting again, but instead he clenches his jaw and looks away from Kokichi. Thinking before he speaks? That’s new. Maybe trusting him wouldn’t a mistake.

“Then why try to stop the killing game? If it’s so much fun like you claim, why the hell would you try to stop it?”

The edge of Kokichi’s lip twitches. The mastermind isn’t watching right now. If there is ever a time to tell Momota, it is now.

Kokichi makes his decision.

He opens his mouth, and the light playful voice spills out, “We had more than enough students at the beginning! Sixteen is a rather big number so it wouldn’t make too much difference if a few dropped dead. But now we’re down to the last few, so I figured the game should end. After all, I need at least a few people to entertain me!”

He can’t trust Momota.

The thoughtful expression Momota has completely shatters, making room for anger instead, “They were our friends you monster! How the fuck can you be so insensitive?! I-”

“Shush! That part isn’t important, their bodies are just rotting somewhere now. The important part is that my current goal aligns with yours!”

He can’t trust Momota with the full truth. But a part of him believes that Momota might agree. Judging from Momota’s determination for everyone to survive, he’d put aside his own feelings and work with Kokichi. He could get away with only telling a part of the truth.

Without realizing it, Kokichi’s wicked grin falls back into a more hopeful smile. It must appear to be more cruel to Momota because he only seems to grow angrier.

“Like hell it does! Your goals are only self-serving. You want me to believe the outside world is gone, and keep everyone trapped here so you can toy with our lives!” Momota is shouting again.

Momota is back to being the opposing force to Kokichi as before. Whatever curiosity that made him push Kokichi before is gone. There wouldn’t be anymore attempts to understand him. It’s a good thing. That is what he tells himself. It is what he wanted. There is no reason to feel disappointment.

“So is that a yes or a no?”

“Fuck you! I want nothing to do with your twisted game” Momota slams the door shut. He’s too angry to give a proper response now. But even after he calms down, Kokichi doesn’t think the answer is going to change.

The hangar is quiet. Kokichi eyes remain on the closed door and the smile on his face slowly drops to a

There’s a peace of mind to be found in the silence. Peace that isn’t here. There’s something wrong. It takes form in an emotion. An emotion rising up through his chest he doesn’t recognize until he feels it gripping his heart.

Anger.

It surprises himself. That isn’t the reaction he expected. He really should get his own emotions in check before he starts acting impulsively like a certain idiot.

Given the lies he fed to Momota, it shouldn’t be a surprise he rejected to aid him. It would be more of a surprise if he did continue believing in him.

Throughout the entire game, Momota had been pushing Kokichi and pestering him to tell him the truth, constantly forcing Kokichi to speak lies they both hated. Taunting him of how he could ‘open up’ and let someone in. Doing nothing, and just giving platitudes of cooperation. Even when Kokichi made himself appear as a threat, all Momota did was punch him and leave him alone, as if that would stop someone who has a mind to commit murder. And now, Momota who preached his ideals of cooperating with _everyone_ is already throwing that hope in the trash, acting purely on impulse and anger. He really doesn’t seem to think things through, he has hopes that act as a blindfold to the truth. A true fool.

He walks over to the bathroom door and sits down, leaning against it. Belatedly, he wonders if anything would have been different if it was Saihara in the hangar instead of Momota. It doesn’t take more than a second of thought to realize, definitely not. It would be a different scenario but the same end result.

He laughs mirthlessly to himself. Saihara was right, he really will always be alone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK so I just wanted to say the feedback I got for the first chapter was so much more than I expected, and I just wanted to thank all of you for being so sweet. Seriously, y'all are the best.
> 
> Another thing! I have what is supposed to be an art blog, but kinda ended up being an Oumota blog here -> (petitesponge.tumblr.com). It is also part of the reason updates are slow (drawing is a bit too much fun my friends).
> 
> Anyways, thanks for sticking around for ch.2 and hope you enjoyed! :)


	3. Chapter 3

The sound of the slamming door echos in the bathroom.

Kaito can’t believe Ouma. First Ouma says he couldn’t give a shit about anyone else or feel any grief for the others, and then turns around asking Kaito for help? Ouma’s just fucking with him now. Kaito isn’t an idiot, he could see that Ouma was taunting him. Saying the cruelest words he could and then asking him for help, knowing he would refuse. He even had the gall to look genuinely hopeful, all done to guilt-trip him afterwords. Emotionally manipulative ass.

He hates to admit that it is working. Even with the anger simmering in Kaito, he still feels a twinge of regret of slamming the door. It’s frustrating. Being with Ouma for any amount of time is an emotional roller-coaster. Not the good kind, the type where you want to throw up by the end of it.  
  
Needing to release the pent-up anger, he starts stomping around the bathroom. The vent method proves itself to be counterproductive when pain starts spiking through his body from the exaggerated movement. Regardless, he keeps on walking.

He said to himself he would try to reach out to Ouma and grit his teeth whenever he started to bullshit more lies. But he doesn’t think that’s possible. He thought that being within close parameters with Ouma may have given him a chance to understand him, but he’s wrong. He can’t understand Ouma at all. The moments he believed could have been genuine emotion could have just as easily been another lie as to hide the truth. Maybe Ouma planned all this and Kaito’s already fallen for his trap. If Ouma can manipulate Gonta into murder, it isn’t much of a stretch to say he could twist Kaito for his new scheme.

Kaito groans. How the hell could he possibly understand someone who goes out of their way to be annoyingly cryptic? Ouma’s is intimately familiar with how to read and manipulate people, and in turn, exactly how to hide any aspect of himself he doesn’t want seen.

He stops walking and sits back on the ground. His body thanks him for it as he lies on his back. There really isn’t anything to do in the bathroom, and it’s not like he can leave. He needs to do something, something other than just sitting here. Sitting alone and over-thinking everything isn’t really his thing.

Thinking about this makes his head hurt.

He wonders what will happen if the the two of them really just stay cooped up in here. The killing game won’t end that easily.

The real question he should be asking is when Monokuma will strike next. It is only a matter of time before two more classmates will be taken from their already few numbers. Judging from how there is a murder every three to five days, it shouldn’t be much longer.

Fuck, how long has he been in here? His sense of time has been screwed up ever since he woke up. He doesn’t even know how long he was initially unconscious for. Ouma didn’t give him any clues as to what time it is. The food may have been a good indicator if he didn’t suspect Ouma may be giving him food at random intervals just to fuck with him.

Optimistically, he could still have around four days before something happens. Pessimistically, he could only have a day left.

Presumably the next murder won’t be Kaito or Ouma. If he doesn’t get out of here, it means there will be someone he’ll never be able to talk to again. The thought closes around his throat. He doesn’t want to lose anyone else. Nobody should have to die, but death kept mercilessly claiming more lives.

He can’t stay in here. He needs to be out there to prevent that from happening again. Even if what he’s done hasn’t worked over and over again, he has to keep believing. If he can’t trust others, then it’s already over.

He’ll prove that his belief in others isn’t pure stupidity. After the continual murders, it could be said that it should be reason to trust each other less, but that’s the exact thinking that got them into this situation. They should know by now that betrayal won’t work, which leaves the only other option to be to join together and trust one another.

Nobody who is still alive would willingly murder. He doesn’t really even think Ouma would murder anyone. He would’ve already killed if that was the case.

If another murder is going to happen, it is going to have to completely twist someone’s entire mindset. Monokuma is going to have to break someone’s mind.

He itches his chin in thought. Dried blood cakes itself under his fingernails. How long has that been there? His attention is then diverted to the blood on the ground. It’s insane how he has managed to ignore it for that long. There’s even blood on the edges of his jacket, a bright contrast to the grayish-magenta hue.

Kaito remembers feeling tired after coughing up blood and then immediately lying down. He was tired and didn’t have the energy to clean up his own blood, which explains why it is still on the floor and smeared onto his mouth. He must have fallen asleep at some point. The reason he didn’t get a chance to clean it up upon awakening was because when he woke up, it was due to Ouma shaking him.

Hold on a minute.

When Ouma shook him awake, there had to have blood all around the floor and on him, perhaps even visible all the way from the door. If Kaito wasn’t moving at the time, it would have looked reminiscent of a dead body.

Ouma didn’t wake up Kaito out of boredom. He was checking if Kaito was alive.

Maybe Kaito isn’t wrong about there being something more to Ouma. If Ouma was scared Kaito had died, then shrugging it off afterwords would be the exactly how Ouma would shrug it off. Ouma shaking him awake proves there was an urgent need to check whether he was alive or not.

A morbid thought crosses his mind. Maybe what Ouma needs isn’t a live hostage.

The one thing Kaito has that is different from the other students is a sickness that is slowly killing him. If Ouma knew of Kaito’s illness before kidnapping him, then Ouma isn’t waiting for something to happen outside the hangar. He would be waiting for Kaito to die of his own accord.

No. He doesn’t want to believe that. He doesn’t want to believe the last thing he’ll see is this shitty bathroom with it’s ugly lighting. Then afterwords his corpse would be used for whatever Ouma wants. His friends would go through a class trial and…

They would vote for Ouma. They would undoubtedly vote for Ouma and they would all be executed. What was the point of that? It doesn’t make sense.

Would a person dying by internal failure count as a murder? It's not like suicide. For a suicide you could get technical and say it's a murder where the victim and culprit are the same. If that's the case then there would be no class trial, just another body. His body.

What would that accomplish? Monokuma is practically omnipotent. All it would do is risk everyone's life, and sacrifice Kaito.

Sacrifice. It would get rid of Kaito. Ouma has been trying to drive everyone apart since the beginning. Kaito knows his sidekicks are strong, but they also rely on him. If the roles were reversed and either Shuichi or Harumaki died… he might just go insane with grief. It would be damn hard to pick himself back up again.

It would drive them apart and then what? That can't be it. It doesn't conclude anything. Ouma says he wants to win. If Kaito dies, there's still five other students, and Ouma certainly couldn't kill all of them to escape. Harumaki would stop him and he'd just be executed.

This is unbelievably frustrating. He has no read on Ouma whatsoever. All his actions must have some end goal in mind- his reaction to the electrobomb proves it- he just doesn't have a clue as to what it could be.

Maybe he should turn this around. If Ouma does have a certain goal, then what can Kaito do to thwart it? There's something else he should be able to do, whatever Ouma is trying to accomplish, it can’t be good.

He's already started trying to get information, and Ouma's must have already lied to him. He needs to wipe his mind of everything Ouma's told him. Ouma is expecting Kaito to do everything in his power to fuck up his plans so it's inevitable he would lie about all of his true intentions.

He can't believe anything Ouma says. He'll just lead Kaito further away from the truth. He doubts he can really believe anything Ouma’s said or acted in front of everyone. The more people watching, the more likely he would exaggerate his lies.

The few times he talked to Ouma alone were long ago, with Ouma teasing Kaito. It couldn’t have been more than two or three weeks, and yet it feels like eons ago. Ouma making fun of Kaito and laughing at him, getting even more enthusiastic when Kaito got mad enough to chase after him. Frustrating, but no genuine hostility between them.

Where did all that go? It couldn’t have all been lies, but at the same time, if that’s the truth, then what the hell is all this happening now?

He doesn’t know.

He lies down, staring at the ceiling, losing himself in a swarm of thoughts. He has nothing better to do but he’s not going back to sleep again. Time passes, and he keeps thinking.

He wants to make up with Saihara. He knew that Saihara was only trying to find the truth in Gonta’s trial. He knew and yet he childishly held onto his own hurt. He shut himself away even when Saihara tried to apologize to him. He turned away from Saihara and left with a closed door, even though he could see how it hurt Saihara. The pain in his chest gives him a terrible thought. What if that is the last meaningful interaction with Saihara? He dies in the hangar and then Saihara is left believing that Kaito died hating him.

The thought hurts and he shoves it down. No, it doesn’t matter if his heart starts failing, he’s going to see Saihara and make things right between them.

Just as he thinks this, he hears a soft tapping. He gets to his feet and ignores the stab of pain that accompanies it. He jerks his head towards the door, but it’s still closed. The momentary shock quickly resides when he realizes the voice came from behind him. He turns around and is greeted by the empty bathroom.

His eyes lock onto the window and to his surprise he sees Saihara.

Kaito keeps his voice quiet, “What are you doing here?!”

Saihara looks just as surprised, “Kaito?!”

Kaito quickly shushes him and questions why he is here. Saihara starts explaining of their dangerous plan. The others haven’t given up. They’re pushing forward and taking their fate into their own hands. They’ll be fine without him. The thought reassures him as much as it twists him up.

Saihara’s gaze softens a bit, “By the way, are you alright Kaito? Besides the injuries that is.”

“Who me?” Panic rises before he realizes Saihara isn’t talking about his illness, “Yeah... I’m fine it’s nothing.” he says this a little too quickly. Saihara notices.

Saihara is about to inquire further but Kaito cuts him off, “Ouma’s going to be back soon so we should end our chat here.” He doesn’t want Saihara to have to worry about him before this dangerous plan.

“Ah, okay. Sure.” He can hear the hurt in Saihara’s voice.

It’s silent for a moment. Saihara averts his gaze downwards before speaking again, “And... about what happened with Gonta, I-.”

“I leave the rest up to you Shuichi.” It is all he needs to say to let Saihara know he forgives him.

“What?”

Kaito takes in a breath. Something tells him in his heart, that this is the last time he’ll ever be able to talk to Saihara like this.

“While I’m gone, you gotta support everyone.” he laughs softly, “Especially Harumaki, she can be reckless sometimes.”

Saihara smiles, “Yeah.”

“You’re an impressive detective through and through, you might not only reach the truth, but something even beyond it.” he means it. He really believes in Shuichi

Kaito swallows a lump in his throat, “Don’t forget, you’re not alone!” even after Kaito dies, Saihara won’t be alone, “Don’t try and do everything yourself, it won’t help if you hurt yourself doing so. You have friends you can trust and rely on.”

It’s a bit hypocritical for him to say it, but it’s what Saihara needs to hear.

“I believe in you, so I’m leaving the rest up to you.” Everything. He’s leaving his trust in Saihara because he believes in him, “Got it Shuichi?”

“...Yes I understand.” Shuichi smiles softly.

Kaito grins back, “Now get going before Ouma comes back!”

“Ah, yeah you’re right. See you tomorrow Mo- I mean, Kaito.” Saihara backs away from the window a smile still on his face.

Kaito gives him a thumbs up, and Saihara gives a small wave before sneaking around the corner out of sight. There’s a feeling of finality in that goodbye. He shakes the feeling off Tomorrow. He just has to make it through to tomorrow. He has faith the rest of them will be able to pull this off. He’ll do his best to spend time with everyone before...

He can’t deny it anymore, he’s dying, and it’s getting worse at an exponential rate. He won’t last much longer. Tomorrow might be all he has left. He’ll leave a note for them at the benches where they normally trained. He can’t tell them straight up. He’s scared. He doesn’t think he could hold it together to see either of them break down, or try and save him. He doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want their last memories to be of tears and panic. He wants their last memories of him to be happy.

He can’t help them anymore afterwords. They’ll still have to face this killing game afterwords and he can’t place anymore of a burden on Saihara then he already is. He settles back down onto the ground, trying to stay optimistic.

“Hey.”

He nearly falls over in surprise. This time he knows to look over to the window. He sees the upper half of Yumeno’s face, slightly strained from the effort to stand on her toes just high enough to look through the window.

“Yumeno!” he whisper shouts, “You’re here!” his face breaks into a exaggerated grin and he rushes over to the window.

Yumeno doesn’t smile back, she instead squints at Kaito, “You’re not hurt are you? Ouma hasn’t done any necromancy on you has he?”

“I’m fine! I’m one-hundred percent bonafide Kaito Momota! You should know that nobody can bring me down, not even the strongest of necromancers.” Yumeno needs all the false bravado as he can muster.

Yumeno gives a smile of relief at his positive response, “I was worried he already got to you, but you’re still the same Momota as ever.” Her smile falls and replaces with great urgency, “Oh! I’m actually here to tell you to prepare for next morning. We have a plan.” she then shuffles her feet and looks away, almost as if ashamed, “...And I wanted to check that you were still... you.”

Odd phrasing, “Of course I’m me! Who else would I be?” he would pat her on the shoulder if he could. “Don’t worry about me, I’m more concerned about you guys. A plan like that has to be dangerous.”

Yumeno scratches her cheek, “Mm, we’ll have each other’s back. And five electrohammers. Ouma won’t be able to stop us.”

“Just be careful and don’t do anything stupid,” He means it, he doesn’t want any of them getting hurt because of him.

“Nyeh. We won’t.” She shuffles her feet, “It was good seeing you but I really can’t stay around. We can talk plenty more once we get you out of there.”

He nods his head, “Yeah, I’ll see you then.” He almost asks if Yumeno could brings something back from upstairs, but decides against it.

She doesn’t smile, she just nods before scampering off. She moves with speed Kaito didn’t think possible for someone that lazy, and disappears around the corner.

Kaito stands in the bathroom. If his friends are coming here, then he needs to disarm Ouma of the exisal remote. He can’t allow Ouma to hurt his friends when they come to rescue him. He thinks he knows how to do it too. Ouma normally never got close enough for Kaito to grab him except for one time. When he was checking if Kaito was alive.

If Ouma follows the exact same course of action as last time, then Ouma will get close enough for Kaito to be able to disarm him. He’ll be able to take away the exisal remote and shift the power dynamic. If he pretends to be unconscious and he’s fast enough, it could work. The pool of blood he coughed up earlier isn’t dry yet.

He hears noises from the other side of the door. Ouma. Perfect timing.

With great reluctance, he bends down and quickly smears it onto his face. Kaito carefully places his head in the blood he had coughed up earlier, trying not to grimace at the strong smell of iron.

The noises on the other side of the door stop. The door opens. Kaito’s facing away from the door, but he can hear it.

Nothing happens. He is sure Ouma is looking directly at him. He hears the door click shut, then a shuffling noise.

Something smacks him hard in the back. He barely stops himself from groaning aloud because that was the opposite of a gentle throw. Ouma sees a 'bloodied' Kaito and the first thing he does is start throwing things at him. How sweet.

He’s fully aware Ouma is testing if he's alive or not. Maybe instead of approaching Kaito, he’ll just keep throwing things and then leave. This is a shaky plan to begin with, but no matter what the end result, Kaito will learn something. At the very least, if Ouma doesn’t approach, that means the previous time was driven by emotion rather than caution. Which means Kaito would know that Ouma does have a weakness that he could drive at for the next few hours.

He hears footsteps approach closer until Ouma must be standing directly over him. He holds his breath, bracing himself to grab Ouma as soon as he touches him. The painkillers are working wonders. While he still has lingering pain, the majority of the pain was gone, allowing him to focus on his external surroundings

More noises of shuffling. What was Ouma doing? It's really damn hard to hold his breath while trying to keep all his muscles loose and limp.

A finger pokes his cheek. That's his cue. His eyes shoot open and he grabs Ouma's arm. To Oumas credit he doesn't even flinch, he widens his eyes in surprise for a moment before starting to laugh.

"Looks like ya caught me!" he doesn't look phased in the slightest, "Momota-chan is so bad at pranks! If you really wanted to play dead, don't use such a strong smelling paint!" That’s a lie, and yet Ouma doesn't even struggle against Kaito's grip.

"What are you doing." He growls. It isn't a question, because he knows that Ouma won't answer.

Tears pool in Ouma's eyes, "I just wanted to check on Momota-chan… "

Kaito shifts so he's sitting up, still not letting go of Ouma. There's nothing he could ask that would give him an answer. So he switches his approach.

“Give me the exisal remote.”

“Sorry Momota-chan~ I don’t have it on me!” he smiles all too smug for a cornered person.

He ignores the sinking in his heart. Somehow, he doubts that’s a lie. He’ll push on that later.

“Then this could be a long night.” he murmurs.

Ouma giggles at that, “Oh? And here I thought Momota-chan was too much of a softy for torture! Are you going to break my legs or pull off my fingernails? Gouge out my eyes or-”

“Gah- just stop there! I do not need any of those mental images, I’m not a sadist!” he shouts, before adding “But that doesn’t mean going to let you go.”

Ouma tilts his head to the side, “Then what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to make sure you can’t run away, that’s for damn sure.”

Kaito had been thinking how to confront Ouma, and the only thing he knows is that he has to make sure Ouma can’t run away.

Kaito tightens his grip on Ouma, “So why did you let yourself get caught?”

“Wow! Are you actually that stupid? You think I let myself get caught by a corpse?” he jeers.

“Hey! Do you think you can really call me stupid if you’re the one who got caught?”

Kaito’s just making stuff up at this point. He doesn’t really think he’ll be able to get anywhere with Ouma, the conversation will end up going in circles just like every other. But his friends are planning something, he could, at the very least, distract Ouma for a while.

Ouma then breaks down into tears, “You’re so mean! Y-y-you really are going to do something unspeakable to me aren’t you? It would make sense you’d beat someone up for the fun of it. I-I-”

“Stop! Just stop your fake crying bullshit! I know what you’re really planning Ouma!”

This stops Ouma’s tears, and interest sparks instead, “Really? What am I planning?”

Kaito takes a deep breath, “You’re waiting for me to die.”

Ouma’s face goes blank. For a horrifying moment he thinks that he’s actually right. But then he hears the real cause for Ouma to go stiff. Or more accurately, feels it.

The slight shaking of the ground every few seconds, accompanied by a symphony of metal. A monster of metal, one on the larger end of the scale. It could only be one thing. An exisal.

Kaito averts his attention towards the small window for a moment, registering what the sound is. He immediately regrets doing so. In the moment his eyes aren’t focused on Ouma, he feels something bite down on his arm, hard.

“Ow! Fuck-” Kaito reflexively releases his grip and Ouma doesn’t waste a second sprinting to the door.

Kaito clutches his bitten hand to his chest. That would definitely bruise later. He swings his head up. Instead of seeing Ouma swinging open the door, he sees Ouma fumbling with a lockpick. He never even realized Ouma locked the door. That doesn’t matter now, he needs to stop Ouma from escaping. Kaito gives chase just as the lock clicks open.

Ouma is faster than him. Fuck! He’s really screwed himself over now. Kaito can then see that Ouma isn’t aiming to run for the exit, but the immobile red exisal sitting by the side of the hangar. By the time Kaito is halfway across the room, Ouma is already scaling the side of the exisal.

Screw it. Kaito switches his trajectory to the hangar doors. If Kaito charges Ouma now, he’s just going to get caught again by the exisal. He’s not going to be Ouma’s hostage again,

The door to the hangar opens and another exisal enters the hangar, the green one. A mixture of fear and relief stirs through him. One of his friends is here. It’s way earlier than the plan and it looks like they’re alone. They’ll be in danger if Ouma gets inside the red exisal! He shouts at the newcomer and points toward Ouma. His anonymous savior must see what he’s pointing at, because they make a beeline straight for Ouma

The green exisal lifts an arm towards Ouma’s exisal. Kaito presumes it is to prevent Ouma from closing the hatch and to pull him out. Ouma’s still trying to get in, and is hurriedly pulling down the hatch to the exisal. He doesn’t know who it is in the green exisal but he knows they’ve got his back.

He doesn’t realize what is happening until the sound of impact nearly shatters his ears. The green exisal’s raised arm smashed down onto Ouma’s exisal. Any earlier relief completely evaporates. The metal lets out a terrifying screech. The spot where the pilot of the exisal looks to be completely caved in. It makes him question if the scream of metal also had a human counterpart joining in the chorus.

He watches in horror as it raises its arm again, but this time it pauses to speak

"What are you hoping to gain from all this Ouma?"

He immediately recognizes the voice. Even through the static of the microphone, he would never fail to recognize one of his sidekicks. Harumaki.

Kaito's just outside the bathroom door. He can’t understand. The accusation, and the absolute coldness in Harumaki’s voice, there has to be something he’s missing, something that would drive her to this. Because Harumaki is his friend, and she’s not heartless or an idiot. She wouldn’t do something stupid like this without a reason.

A strained laugh sounds from the partially crushed exisal, "… Do you really love killing that much?"

The arm swings down again. Another metal shriek echoes in the hangar and the red exisal falls to the ground.

Harumaki opens the hatch of her own exisal and leaps onto the crushed one, crossbow in arm.

"I'll ask you one more time. What is your true purpose?"

The exisal is lying on its side, the metal covering the cockpit cracked. Kaito can't see Ouma from where he's at, but he can see the crossbow in Harumaki's hand pushed right up against the crack in the plating.

She is going to kill Ouma.

"Harumaki stop!" his voice is filled with strength and conviction, not matching the nausea and fear he feels.

She turns, seeing him for the first time. Her eyes widen ever so slightly, and her crossbow lowers.

"Did Ouma do that to you?"

It takes a moment before he realizes she's referring to the blood on his face. His brain kicks into overdrive, he needs to say something that won’t make her want to shoot Ouma even more.

“No it’s- it’s just paint. I was trying to trick him to get close enough.” he glances at the fallen exisal, “But Harumaki what are you doing?! You’re going to end up killing Ouma and yourself!”

Her expression doesn’t change, "He's too dangerous to leave alive. Even at the cost of my own life, I cannot let him live." she stares at him a moment longer before she realigns her arm and her muscles tense. Ready to fire.

No.

Nononononono

He wants to run over there and take the crossbow from her hands. He wants to make sure she doesn’t do something stupid. But the few seconds it would take to close the distance are too much. She would pull the trigger as soon as she saw Kaito starting to move. She didn’t come here for him, she came here for Ouma. She isn’t going to listen to anything he says.

He tastes a metallic bile rising up in the back of his throat, and fuck he doesn’t want to think about his illness now, he-

His illness.

Before thinking deeply on what he is doing, he collapses to his knees with an exaggerated gasp. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, but he knows he has to get Harumaki’s attention away from Ouma. Even if it is only a few seconds more, it could be the one difference in escaping this ending.

Harumaki turns her head to Kaito, alarmed, “Momota?”

He can’t change her mind about killing Ouma, not right now with her current conviction, “Sorry. I lied to you, the blood is real.” He only needs to change her priority to something else, anything else. “Arsenic.” He names the first poisonous substance off the top of his head, “Please, I’m not going to last much longer.”

He doesn’t know if she’ll go find an antidote first or shoot Ouma. He’s relying solely on the hope that Harumaki cares about him as much as he does about her.

Harumaki finally lowers her crossbow, “Don’t move Momota.” Her face shifts to show a rare moment of raw emotion, even if her voice doesn’t show it. “Moving will hasten the spread of the poison.”

She bites her thumbnail before taking a quick once-over look at Kaito, “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

She doesn’t spare a second glance at the crumpled exisal. Harumaki sprints out of the hangar with incredible speed, desperate to save her dying friend. He’s so relieved that he wasn’t wrong about her. He did make an impact on her, and she has changed.

He just wishes there is an antidote she could bring back that could save him.

The thought quickly subsides when he realizes he still has no idea if Ouma is alive or not. Ouma could be dead and Kaito would have to face Harumaki’s execution But he doesn’t want to believe that, so he’ll push for his own belief until the truth slaps him in the face.

He gets off his knees and rushes over to the fallen exisal. It's lying on its side awkwardly, the hatch is partially open. He starts trying to open the hatch all the way, it pops off easily. The neon lighting makes it difficult to see whether or not there is blood but he can see the body is bent unnaturally, unmoving. He’s afraid to look at Ouma’s face. He’s scared that he will see glassy eyes, void of life. Fear to see another body, to see a face of someone he used to know. To know that he let someone die right in front of him, and that he would have to watch another be executed.

He forces himself to drag his gaze up.

His eyes look up to see Ouma staring dazedly back at him.

Alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo! Here is the update you've all been waiting for! 5k words! Thank you for you're everlasting patience and sticking with me this long, and I just want to reiterate my thanks to all the people who commented on previous chapters! Y'all are the best and are gonna make me cry. 
> 
> Up next in Chapter 4: A shaky alliance is formed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ouma and Momota set the plan in place.

Kokichi thought he was going to die.

Kokichi had barely entered the exisal and wasn't even sitting when the entire roof of the cockpit came crumbling down. The metal indent unfortunately lined right where his right leg was. He isn’t going to be a cripple for life, since he can still feel his leg and all of the fucking pain to be expected from a crushed appendage.

When he saw the crossbow’s arrow aimed right for his heart shimmering with the gloss of a poison, he knew that his death would have been a painful one. He triggered the last electrobomb after the first blow to his exisal. He could only hope that Momota would have the sense to hide Kokichi’s lifeless corpse so there would never be a third witness to trigger the class trial. It was a terrible fucking plan but it was the only thing left he could hope for with the last seconds of his life.

But he isn't dead. He's alive, looking out of the broken cockpit and staring right at Kaito.

"Ouma, you okay?"

A laugh spills out of Kokichi, hysterical. He should have known how far Momota’s hero complex ran! Kokichi would bet, that if it came down to it, Momota would have jumped in front of the loaded crossbow to save a villain like him. What an idiot. Even if it is just so his precious sidekick wouldn’t get executed. Even now, while he’s laughing half delirious from the pain, he can still see Momota’s brow furrowed with worry.

"Of all people, I didn't expect you to be a traitor!" Kokichi chortles.

The words throw Momota off, "What?! No! I'm not a traitor!” he sputters, “I just-I couldn't just watch you die!”

Kokichi ignores the pain throbbing in his leg. He needs to get out now.

“Oh? So you’ll help me?”

“I didn’t say-”

“Great! You can start by getting me out of this metal junk pile!”

Momota stills for a moment. Kokichi knows he’ll be able to get Momota to help him. Momota is a little too easily manipulated.

“I was going to do that anyway stupid.” Momota grumbles.

Kokichi blinks owlishly as Momota leans down to try and pull the bent metal off the hinges. The movement jostles the exisal. An electric strike of pain shoots up Kokichi’s right leg. Shit, that hurts. Walking will definitely be a bitch.

The gears start turning faster in Kokichi’s head. After stalling the killing game to a halt with his ‘mastermind’ reveal, it appears that the mastermind behind Monokuma has finally made their next move. Harukawa’s actions must have been spurred on by something or someone else, otherwise she wouldn’t have waited so long. If she deemed Kokichi such a big threat from the start, she wouldn’t have left her precious Momota alone with him for this long.

Inadvertently, Harukawa had helped him. By being directly manipulated by the mastermind, Kokichi gained vital information. He suspected before that the killing game had the inner helpings of one of the students, but now the chances of the mastermind being one of the students is extremely likely. With Monokuma being guarded by the exisals, and no Monokubs to do dirty work, the only other known presence in the academy are the students.

“Damn exisals are still a pain in the ass even when they’re broken.” Momota grumbles under his breath.

Kokichi smile becomes slightly more strained from the movement, "Saaay, since you've already lied to Harukawa-chan for me, I'm sure you can help me out one more time.”

“Just because I-” Momota tugs harder at the plating over Kokichi’s legs, “-didn’t want you to die, doesn’t mean I’m willing to hurt my friends.”

The metal gives way just a bit more, just enough for Kokichi to slip out. Kokichi’s opens his mouth to ask Momota to lift him out, but he already has his hands under Kokichi’s arms and is pulling him out.

The movement jostles his wound and Kokichi clenches his teeth. The distinct smell of blood hits his nose. He idly wonders if it’s his own blood or if it belongs to the astronaut pulling him out right now. He feels himself being lifted up and out, and braces himself for when Momota lets go of him and Kokichi inevitably collapses onto the ground.

It doesn’t happen, instead, he finds the arms around him slowly lowering themselves with him onto the ground.

"Holy shit." Kaito says, still holding Kokichi, "Dude your leg."

Kokichi looks down, "Oh, well that’s not too bad."

It’s better than he hoped. He expected a broken bone, but his leg looks normal minus the blood seeping through the white fabric around his thigh. It looks a lot worse than it probably is. The blood is probably from a cut from the metal, and the pain is probably from a severe bruise. If that’s the case, he may be able to walk, albeit with much more struggle than normal.

Momota looks like he’s ready to panic, “Are you fuckin’ _blind!?_ We need to treat that right now. Please to god tell me you have a first aid kit hidden here somewhere.”

Kokichi just laughs and shrugs off Momota’s arm. Of course Momota wouldn’t think the blood is some prank or lie. He’s treating it as if Kokichi will die without intervention. The concern for him is almost refreshing.

“Aw don’t worry about me. The pressing matter right now is that Harukawa-chan’s going to be coming back soon. We should be setting the scene right now.”

“You’re bleeding out, I need to get-”

“-a camcorder!” Kokichi interrupts, fully aware of every second passing by.

“That’s not anywhere close to what I was going to say. Why the hell would you need a camcorder?”

Kokichi smiles. The plan is already perfectly formed in his head, he just needs to manipulate Momota into helping him.

“Silly Momota-chan! What’s the point in acting out a murder if nobody will see it?”

“Why _the hell_ would I want to do that?”

“Ooh and then we have a trial, and then everyone finds the culprit, and then Monokuma has to claim someone killed you. But no matter what he’ll be wrong because you won’t be the one dead.”

Momota stares at him, trying to follow Kokichi’s line of thought, “I’m sorry _what_?”

It figures Kokichi would need to explain everything “We’re going to trick Monokuma!”

Momota face scrunches up in confusion.

Kokichi continues, “Like I said, I’m going to end the killing game by ruining it.” he rolls his eyes, “I could use a partner-in-crime though.”

Momota will refuse initially, Kokichi knows that. He’ll try his evil persona first to convince him, using threats to get what he wants. If that fails, Kokichi would then overplay his injured leg to the point that Momota thought he would be fulfilling a dying man’s wishes. It would be easy to act desperate, he could even throw in some angry tears and broken sobs. Momota is good at heart. Kokichi knows that he could manipulate that if he uses drastic measures. It doesn’t matter if it left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Why now? Why the _fuck_ would you _kidnap_ me and then say all you want to do is cooperate?”

“Because it would _really_ make things interesting.” He pauses as if he’s thinking about his next words, “After all, it’s not like you have a choice.”

Momota’s expression hardens, “What are you talking about?”

“If you don’t help me, I will go straight to Harukawa-chan for the sweet embrace of death!”

The anger switches to annoyance, “Stop lying! ”

Kokichi grins, “Can you really be sure I’m lying? This academy is sooooo boring. If I’m going to bleed out and die, I’d want to at least take that bitch down with me.”

“You are _not_ going to bleed out and die. And don’t call Harumaki that.” Momota huffs angrily getting back to his feet.

Kokichi acts as if Momota didn’t say anything at all, “And the trial that would follow my death... I wonder if someone might tamper with the evidence to save their sidekick? Or maybe convince everyone I commit suicide!” He laughs cruelly, “Man I would just love to see how you’d get everyone executed to save-”

Kokichi doesn’t get to finish his sentence before a fist collides with the side of his face. Pain blossoms in his cheek, but Kokichi grin only grows wider. It’s working. Even if Kokichi has to get cooperation through threats and manipulation, he’ll do it. Anything to end this killing game once and for all.

“ _Shut up!_ ” Momota’s jaw is clenched in anger, “That is not going to happen if I have anything to say about it!” He abruptly turns away and stomps towards the hangar door.

The _open_ hangar door.

Kokichi shoots up to his feet, or at least tries to. He nearly knocks himself out from the combined rush of getting up too quickly and the sheer amount of pain. He stumbles back onto the ground, cursing his traitorous body for collapsing on him at an crucial moment like this. Kokichi is not about to let Momota walk out of here that easily. Whatever idiotic idea he’s getting about talking to Harukawa, it’s not going to work.

The sound of the hangar door closing stops Kokichi from getting up again.

Momota is standing next to the now closed shutters, looking pleased with himself. “I’m not letting you go anywhere near Harumaki. You’re stuck here with me whether you like it or not.”

Wow. This is working out so much better than Kokichi thought it would.

Kokichi shifts so he’s sitting up again, speaking in a more neutral tone, “You must think Harukawa-chan is stupid if you think she won’t just hijack another exisal.”

Momota’s face falls into irritation, realizing Kokichi is right.

“Maybe you should be the one to kill me Momota-chan!”

“Hell no! I’m not going to do that.”

“Then you’re going to let me suffer a slow death? That’s rather cruel of you...”

“Goddammit, Ouma you’re not bleeding that much!”

Kokichi takes a deep breath. Making Momota angry would leave him emotionally vulnerable. It would make him more irrational and more susceptible to believing lies.

He locks eyes with Momota, “I’m sure you can understand the feeling of not wanting a meaningless death for the sake of your friends.”

He definitely hit a sore spot there. Momota instantly bristles, and he starts walking back from the hangar shutters toward Kokichi.

“Don’t play that bullshit with me!” Momota snaps, “You couldn’t give a shit about anyone other than yourself.” Momota stops a few meters away from Kokichi.

“You’re right. I couldn’t give a shit about anyone else.” Kokichi repeats smiling, bitterness lacing his words.“What I’m doing right now is ensuring my own damn safety.”

Momota looks away, disgusted, “Fuck you.”

Kokichi feels his own anger start to childishly rise, “What your stupid brain can’t seem to comprehend, is that my safety guarantees the rest of our friends safety.”

“ _Fuck you_.”

“If this killing game continues, my life will be the next one the mastermind will want to extinguish.”

Momota throws his hands up in the air, “You _are_ the mastermind.”

“You already saw yourself that the real mastermind manipulated your own ‘sidekick’ into trying to kill me.” Kokichi hisses, “Don’t you get ittak? I want this killing game to end, I have the same goal as you.”

“If you know how to stop the killing game, then by all means, spill!”

“If you can shut up long enough, then maybe I will.” Momota glares but doesn’t respond to Kokichi’s challenge, “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Monokuma is a stickler for rules, most likely because it’s for someone else’s entertainment.”

The anger fades as Momota processes what Kokichi just said, “Someone else...?”

Kokichi nods numbly, “In that case, then Monokuma following the rules is just as important for him as it is for us. He needs to follow the formula of murder, trial, execution in order to keep his audience sated.”

Kokichi sits up a little taller, relieved to have finally secured Momota’s attention, “So. Let’s just say there’s an inordinate amount of blood under the press, and a video that _looks like_ someone being crushed. Monokuma will believe there’s been a murder right?”

It’s a rhetorical question but Momota still nods a slow ‘yes’ in response.

“Then if we had a trial and Monokuma judged that I killed you for example, and then you turn out to be alive, what do you suppose would happen?”

Momota takes a moment to think, processing what Kokichi just told him. His expression lights up in comprehension, “...It would fuck up the entire killing game.”

“Yup!” Kokichi says, popping the ‘p’ with exaggeration.

Momota shuffles uncomfortably, obviously internally debating Kokichi’s words, “You really want to end it?”

Finally. A serious response would be all that is necessary for Momota to be willing to cooperate.

Kokichi smile disappears, replaced with complete neutrality, “Yeah. I do.”

Momota stares at him for a hard long moment. He doesn’t trust Kokichi, but Momota should see the reasoning in his plan. Kaito lets out a long sigh.

“What do you need me to do?”

Kokichi blinks. The words sound.... defeated. He didn’t doubt that Momota would eventually agree, but somehow it feels bizarre, as if he didn’t actually expect it to happen. Kokichi regains his composure, quickly.

“Behind the press. Camcorder.” A mechanical response.

Momota immediately starts towards the press, grumbling something unintelligible from this distance. Kokichi doesn’t grace him with a response, they don’t have time to bicker. If they don’t finish before the electrobomb wears off, it’s game over.

Momota comes back moments later with the camcorder, “This better not be some dumb prank to waste time.”

Kokichi takes the camcorder out of his hands and sits up, wearing a guarded smile, “If you’re so worried about time you should be getting under the press instead of talking.”

Momota jerks his head at him in alarm, “Under the press!?”

Ah shit, that was definitely not the best way to mention that part of the plan.

“You see Momota-chan,” Kokichi backtracks, “The plan is for you to be under the press while it lowers. I’ll be at the press control panel recording it. I’ll pause both the video and the press when it’s about halfway down. Then we switch out your meaty blood sack with a literal blood sack!” Kokichi smiles innocently, hoping for fuck’s sake that Momota isn’t going to back out, “Once you’re our of harms way, I’ll start resume recording. Then squish! We get a video that looks like one-hundred-percent proof of your murder!”

Momota puts his fists together and looks down in contemplation.

“I have no reason to murder you if you’re worried about that.” Kokichi pipes up, “It would basically be suicide!”

“Yeah yeah, I got that.” Momota waves him off dismissively, still in thought.

Kokichi frowns. No matter, it appears that Momota is on board with the plan.

Kokichi uses his arms to try and stand up, slower this time. Pain spikes through his leg, he grits his teeth and continues, putting the majority of his weight onto his non-bleeding leg. He must look like a pitiful sight because it snaps Momota out of his daydream and without delay Momota is at his side supporting him with an arm.

“Hey! Don’t do that, let me help you up.” Kokichi doesn’t have to look to know Momota’s face is mostly hard, but he can see the worry in it.

Worry. How laughable is that. It took no time for Momota to switch from being angry to sympathetic. So fast that Kokichi’s surprised Momota doesn’t get emotional whiplash

In other news, Kokichi can already tell his leg is going to be a significant burden, and would only prove to be an inconvenience in the future. Yet, more irritating than his leg is the part of him grateful for Momota’s help. Momota helps him the rest way to the press control panel, only letting go when Kokichi has a firm grip of the railing for support.

Kokichi watches as Momota walks back down and around to the press. Momota agreed to this plan all too readily. Momota’s desperate. The tired movements and lack of energy... an uncomfortable knot forms in his throat. The blood still caked around his mouth is a morbid reminder that internally, something is wrong with him.

Kokichi wonders how much longer Momota has left to live.

“Hey Momota-chan~! You should take off your jacket and leave just the sleeve poking out from under the press! Just so there isn’t any confusion as to who died.”

“Whatever you weirdo.” Despite the obvious reluctance in removing his jacket, he still does exactly as told.

Momota stares at the press for a moment, and even though he said he would follow through with the plan, the hesitation crawling under the press is clear. The moment passes, and Momota goes under the press and lies on his back.

Momota isn’t stupid. Willfully ignorant would be more accurate. Momota’s ideals and approach to others is in fact, admirable, Kokichi admits. It leaves Momota vulnerable, and his trust undoubtedly must have been broken over and over again but he is still willing to believe in the good of others. Those ideals, no matter how admirable, have no place in a cruel game like this.

Kokichi’s hands hover uncomfortably over the ‘Down’ button on the press. It would be so easy for Kokichi to kill him right now, something that Momota knows just as well. It wouldn’t make sense for Kokichi to kill him, as it would basically be akin to suicide but Kokichi’s actions have are convincing enough that the remaining students believe him to be insane.

Momota closes his eyes, “Ready.”

And yet Momota is following every command Kokichi is giving. Illogically placing trust in someone who has no right to it.

Kokichi hits record.

Then “Down.”

The machine hums in obedience and lowers. Barely over a second passes before Kokichi stops both the press and camcorder. Momota crawls out, looking a bit paler than before.

“If I had to make a lists of worst ways to die, crushed under a press is _definitely_ going to be up at the top.”

Kokichi laughs mockingly, “Then you obviously don’t have enough of an imagination Momota-chan.”

Momota frowns, “No, not pain-wise. It’s just fucking _terrifying_ staring at that thing coming down.” he looks away, uncomfortable, “So what are we putting under in replacement?”

Kokichi bites back an insult, “Didn’t you see when you picked up the camera? There’s blood packets behind the press as well.”

Irritation flickers on Momota’s face, “I wouldn’t be asking if I had seen it now would I?” Regardless he goes back to look behind the press again.

“You even have a knife back here.” He reemerges in Kokichi’s line of vision with the stolen blood packets from Angie’s lab.

Momota walks over to place the packets underneath the press, a grimace on his face. He must have seen the names on the blood packets. The student council. Essentially a cult of people who were desperate for some drastic change so they could believe the killings would stop.

Angie wasn’t a fool. She used the excuse of Atua, but there was intellect hidden in her mind that allowed her to manipulate people into following her. Her destroying the flashback light wasn’t a mindless action. She wanted absolute control over the students, therefore she would have to rid Monokuma’s control.

It didn’t get her far. Her own extremes made her a target for someone who wanted to kill. She couldn’t have predicted a literal _serial killer_ in their midst. Even then, the student council would have inevitably fallen apart. Iruma would have made a move against her if Shinguji did not.

Momota places the last blood packet under the press, “Were you planning all-” he gestures to the press and himself, “- _this_ from the start?”

“What do _you_ think the answer is?”

“I don’t know! Seems like it if you have something from the fourth floor here.”

“OK! Then that’s the answer! Now could you move? You’re still in the frame.”

Momota grumbles something under his breath before moving.

Kokichi hits both the record button, and the “Down.”

The press, instead of lowering gradually like before, practically slams down onto the plating. It is as if the emergency stop button had wound it up like a spring until the release. The sound of the press slamming startles both of them and the force causes the blood to splatter far beyond what Kokichi expected.

Momota is dead quiet, and probably thinking the same thing Kokichi is.

_It looks real._

It is what he wanted. If it looked fake, the plan would be ruined. The reason his stomach churned is because of how overly gruesome and cruel it appeared. Anyone who looked at it, would definitely be convinced there is someone under there.

The sleeve of the jacket poking out, covered in blood. The other students would automatically assume it is Momota who is dead, and by process of elimination, Ouma would be the culprit. But that case is too simple. Saihara would find great suspicion in a plan like that, something so easily presented that he would try and find the proof of the truth.

Kokichi couldn’t allow that.

He takes off his scarf. He needs to plant evidence that would raise questions. Questions as to if Momota really is the victim. The investigation following a murder is always thorough, one of them would find Kokichi’s clothes, even if they were crumpled up and stuffed into a toilet in a half-assed attempt to get rid of it.

Kokichi snaps off the clips of his shirt, in the silence of the hangar, each snap of the clips is audible. Momota takes his eyes off the press to look at the source of the snaps.

“Huh!? Ouma, what are you doing?” It’s a funny face Momota makes at him. Just, absolutely baffled with shock and incomprehension.

“Taking off my shirt.” Kokichi deadpans.

Momota’s face scrunches up in irritation, “You know what I mean!”

Kokichi shrugs off the jacket and balls it up, “Well you can’t flush my clothes down the toilet if I’m wearing them!” Kokichi tosses the balled up clothing to Momota, who catches it purely on reflex alone.

Momota stares at the clothing in his hand, then back to Kokichi, “I don’t get it.”

Kokichi rolls his eyes in exaggeration, “You don’t have to Momota-chan. Just do it.”

“Fine, whatever pleases your royal highness.” Momota turns away and starts toward the bathroom with Kokichi’s clothing.

Kokichi stares at the press a moment longer. If they don’t want anyone finding out that there is only blood and no bones guts and organs underneath, they’ll need to cut the power supply to it. Kokichi can do that on his own.

He stumbles his way down the stairs of the press control panel, keeping an iron grip on the handrails to support himself. Even then, the pain still hits him hard. He pushes on, limping over to behind the press where he had also hid a knife. He could have just asked Momota when he came back, as it wouldn’t take much time for Momota to ‘accidentally’ clog the toilet, but Kokichi wanted to do it himself. Perhaps a bit immaturely Kokichi wanted to prove that one small leg injury isn’t going to render himself helpless.

Despite this mindset, it’s pathetic how difficult it is to hobble over there. The distance isn’t far, but the pain jolting with each movement isn’t helping.

After too much time, he reaches behind the press. On the backside of it, while there is a touch less blood than in the front, there is still quite an abundance of the metallic liquid. Kokichi grimaces, the knife is practically coated with blood. He reaches over and picks it up, the cold fluid touching his fingers. It shouldn’t bother him, but he can’t help but wonder whose blood is coating the knife.

He tries to push the thought away by beginning to try and cut the power cord. Although ‘sawing’ would be more accurate than ‘cutting’ given how thick the cord is. It isn’t the most comfortable pose, but he manages. The blood on the knife makes it hard to get a good grip. Even though it wouldn’t be worth a damn thinking which blood packet from the student council it is that coated the knife, Kokichi hopes it isn’t Gonta’s. Kokichi doesn’t want Gonta’s blood on his hands figuratively and literally. He shakes the thought away, he doesn’t have a right to grieve, not after what he did.

Subconsciously Kokichi grips the knife harder, sawing the cord with much more force. It will be over though. It has to over soon. If he’s wrong and this doesn’t end the killing game, then what would have Gonta and Iruma’s lives been for? Who else will have to die?

Kokichi is almost completely done cutting the cord when he hears the shout of an all too familiar assassin

“Momota!” Harukawa’s voice echoes in the chamber.

Kokichi’s blood freezes. How could he hear her? Kokichi automatically snaps his head towards the hangar doors. It's still shut all the way.

“Momota!” Harukawa tries again, louder and more urgently.

He whips his head toward the source of the sound. The bathroom. The window in the bathroom. She came back faster than Kokichi expected.

Kokichi already knows he won’t make it nearly in time to Momota to stop him from answering Harukawa. Yet he gets up, or at least tries to. His goddamn leg can’t take any of his weight without pain. He falls back to where he started. Well isn’t that just fantastic.

“Harumaki! You came back!” Kokichi hears Momota shout. Great. He wonders how much of his plan will be salvageable.

There is desperation in her voice that Kokichi’s never heard before.“Yes. Now take this. It’s the antidote.”

Kokichi can’t see what’s happening, but judging from the silence, Momota is probably chugging down whatever concoction Harukawa handed him. Idiot.

Said idiot speaks again, “Ah, thanks, you really saved me there. Now there’s nothing stopping the Luminary of the Stars! I’ll take care of everything from here on out okay? Just go back to the others.”

“Is...” Harukawa starts, “Is Ouma dead?”

“You don’t have to worry about that, I said I’ll take care of it. Just trust me with this Harumaki.” A beat of silence, “You trust me don’t you?”

There’s an even longer silence before Kokichi hears Harukawa respond.

“...Of course I do.”

Momota responds to that with a voice so quiet Kokichi can scarcely make out any of the words except ‘goodbye.’ He doesn’t hear any more conversation after that.

Kokichi turns around and resumes cutting the power cord. Momota better have already hidden his clothing before talking to Harukawa. Almost instantly after he thinks that, he hears a flush in the distance. Of course Momota still had his clothing when he was talking to Harukawa. Hopefully she didn’t see it, that would unnecessarily muddle the outcomes of the upcoming trial.

Kokichi can assume the entire conversation between Harukawa and Momota would find its way to Saihara. It would hasten the trial to concluding Momota as the culprit. The longer the trial took, the worse it is for the Monokuma and the mastermind. The traitor among them would be grow more panicked and desperate. They would more careless and make mistakes that would incriminate themselves during the trial. Judging from how they’ve managed to hide this long, they’ll need all the hints they can get.

The cord snaps with a satisfying sound. Perfect timing it seems. He hears Momota’s footfalls approaching from the bathroom.

“So what now?” Momota murmurs.

Kokichi turns around with a wide exaggerated grin.

“Weeell we can’t exactly be here when the body is discovered now can we?” Momota opens his mouth to speak but Kokichi continues, “So we’re going to hide out in that exisal until the trial!” he points to the green exisal Harukawa was in earlier.

“So... just waiting in there all night?” Momota asks, sounding worried.

Kokichi raises an eyebrow, “Oh? Is Momota-chan getting dirty ideas of being alone with me all night?”

“Huh?!” Momota recoils as if slapped, “No! That’s not anywhere near what I was thinking. _Jeez._ ” He scratches the back of his head.

It doesn’t matter if Momota actually says it aloud or not, the weary look on his face tells exactly what Momota was thinking. Kokichi glances back at the blood on Momota’s white sleeve. Although Momota is determined to live, there’s not much optimism can do against internal organ failure.

Kokichi pretends not to catch onto Momota’s thoughts and sticks his arms out like a child wanting to go 'up.'

“Momota-chaaan you have to help meeee! I can’t climb into the exisal on my own!” Kokichi whines, making grabby motions with his hands.

Kaito sighs, "Take this more seriously, jeez." Nonetheless he follows Ouma's wishes and crouches down to offer Kokichi his back.

Once again, it is amazing how easily Kokichi could kill Momota right now. The bloodied knife is still in his hands, and here is Momota with his back vulnerable for a stabbing. Momota doesn’t even consider it an option. He seems intent on treating Kokichi closer to a sadistic child than a murderous psycho.

Kokichi pulls himself up and onto Momota’s back. No matter how much Kokichi planned ahead, a piggy-back ride from Momota is something he never would have predicted.

“Forward minion! We have no time to waste!” Kokichi cheers half-heartedly, aiming more for a distraction than anything else.

“Hey I’m not your minion!” Momota stands up with Kokichi on his back as if he isn’t even there.

“Oh then whose minion are you?”

“ _Nobody’s_ you prick!”

Kokichi laughs at Momota mockingly. It’s easy to forget his worries when there’s someone idiotic enough to argue normally even in the face of everything happening around them. Although it would have been a bit more enjoyable if Kokichi wasn’t hanging off of Momota’s back like a koala. That’s a bit humiliating.

When Momota approaches the exisal he doesn’t hesitate to start scaling it. It admittedly makes it harder to hold on, but Kokichi’s would sooner accidentally choke Momota with his grip around his neck, than fall to the floor like a fool. Momota doesn’t comment on his death-tight grip, which likely means Momota’s being considerate out of pity. That’s irritating.

It’s no small challenge to get the both of them inside the exisal but somehow they manage. The first thing Kokichi realizes is that the exisal cockpit is a lot smaller than he remembered. Kokichi immediately tries to put as much distance between himself and Momota as possible. In a space not even meant to fit one full teenager, much less two, he is hardly successful. Kokichi’s bare back is pressed uncomfortably against the cold metal of the side of the cockpit but he still has his legs on Momota’s lap. He squirms trying to get more of his own space, starting to realize how claustrophobic the small space is.

“Hey- hey! Stop moving around, it’s not going to get more comfortable than this.”

Kokichi sticks out his tongue, “I can’t breathe if I’m choking on your nasty smelling breath!”

Momota groans, rubbing his forehead with his hand “Don’t you ever get tired of insulting people?”

“Nope!” It is a pretty fun distraction after all.

“Dude it’s like 3AM or something, why can’t you just be civil for once?”

“Because that’s boooring.”

In truth, Kokichi would love nothing more than to stop arguing and just curl up to sleep right now. But they’re not finished yet. They need to get out of the hangar. It would be dangerous to remain here when the others eventually arrive. Kokichi eyes the controls for a moment before lunging for them.

“I call dibs on where we camp out!” Kokichi taps a few buttons expertly. He takes care to push the mute button on the exisal’s microphone before guiding the exisal out of the hangar.

“Wha- you can’t just decide that on your own!” Momota elbows Kokichi in the ribs in an attempt to push him away from the controls

Kokichi hisses at him in response, elbowing Momota back twice as hard. “I thought you were all about cooperation and trust?”

“This is different!” Momota lunges in another attempt to grab the controls.

Kokichi slaps his arm away, “Oh and I suppose you’re the one who came up with the plan to trick Monokuma?”

“Shut up!” he retorts.

After a few more seconds of shoving and elbowing, Momota gives up, mumbling a defeated, “Cooperation my ass...”

The rest of the journey is quiet minus the sounds of the exisal stomping to their destination. Kokichi stops the exisal right when the reach directly behind the Shrine of Judgement. Kokichi doesn’t bother talking, preoccupied with the controls and scanning the area for any unwanted eyes.

It’s unsettling being this close to Momota. He really would like to get twenty feet of space away from the astronaut as soon as possible. He didn’t notice it as much when being pulled out of the exisal, or when he was being carried. Both times he was more preoccupied with not falling and landing on his face.

Now that it’s quiet and they’re just waiting. It is damn _unsettling_ to try and relax while being so close to another person.

Kokichi fakes a large yawn, “Dealing with you is sooo tiring Momota-chan. Good night!” Kokichi turns his head away and closes his eyes.

Momota doesn’t grace him with a worded response, only a snort. Not that Kokichi is complaining. The sooner he can fall asleep, the better. It takes a bit of time, but eventually he feels his consciousness fade.

When he awakes, it is with a shiver. He feels chilled to the bone. The metal against his back is still freezing and not only that, but the cold mass under his legs is also starting to seep away his heat as well. It’s when Kokichi opens his eyes does he start to recall the events that happened earlier that night. It takes another second for sheer horror to ripple through him at the sight of Momota’s unmoving body.

Kokichi starts shaking Momota’s arm, “Momota-chaaan, I’m cold! Gimme your shirt!”

His arm is just as cold, and wet. And sticky.

There isn’t a response, and just then does the awful stench of blood hit Kokichi. He feels bile start to rise in the back of his throat. No. _No. It can’t be._

He grabs Momota’s wrist. It’s like touching ice.

He doesn’t feel a pulse.

All the oxygen disappears, and it’s like he can’t breathe. Kokichi lets go as if burned and tries to push the body as far away from him as possible. His heart is hammering in his head, and he can’t get far enough away from the _corpse._

Kokichi will have to stay in this exisal for hours. No, it could be _days_ if the others don’t enter the hangar. Days with the corpse of yet another student.

Kokichi can’t even scream, can’t look away or run away or escape this cruel reality and _oh god he’s touching it. He’s touching the bloody corpse of Kaito Momota._

_Hey. Hey!_

The world starts to blur. The dim colors in the exisal being spotted out by the growing black in his vision.

_Ouma wake up!_

Kokichi opens his eyes for the second time with a gasp. He blinks a few times before his mind registers a very alive Momota holding both his shoulders with a startled concern in his eyes.

Oh. It was just another nightmare.

“Hey- uh Ouma you okay? You just started kicking and thrashing about.”

He hates the unmasked concern in Momota’s eyes, and how that pitying look is aimed directly at him.

“Huh? Is that what you say when you throttle someone awake Momota-chan?” Kokichi shoves Momota’s arms off of him. He hopes Momota hasn’t realized he’s shaking.

“Don’t be difficult! It was obvious you were having a nightmare!” Momota snaps irritably.

“How do you know I wasn’t just having a _really_ good dream?”

“You’re literally _trembling_.” Shit, so Momota did notice.

“It’s not exactly warm in here.” Kokichi scoffs, “What does that matter to you anyways?”

“Dude, just because I don’t like or trust you doesn’t mean I want to see you in pain.”

Somehow that answer pisses him off.

Kokichi throws both hands up in the air, “Wow! Are you really stupid enough to start blindly caring about a person who has half a mind to strangle you?” The words come out harsh and without careful thought.

“Cut that out! Why the hell are you being like this when I’m just making sure you’re alright!?” Even in the dim lighting of the exisal, it is easy to see Momota is getting frustrated.

“I don’t want or _need_ your help.” Kokichi spits.

“Then why are you being so defensive?”

“Why can’t you just _drop it?_ ”

Momota doesn’t respond to that but doesn’t turn away either. The dream had left Kokichi shaken and with no time to slip his mask back on. This entire conversation is a mistake.

After an eternity, Momota sighs, “You mentioned it being cold in here?”

A change in topic. That’s a surprising amount of tact from someone who is the definition of bull-headed. The tension from earlier lifts ever so slightly.

“Nope. I’m super toasty warm in this freezing metal machine!” A wickedly childish idea occurs to Kokichi.

Without warning, he shoves both of his freezing hands against Momota’s neck, earning him a surprised shriek.

“ _ARGH!_ ” Momota immediately pushes him away, “What the _fuck_ man?!”

“That’s your punishment for waking me up.” Kokichi cheekily replies.

“You and I both know that was completely unwarranted.” Momota grumbles. He then starts making movements with his arms that Kokichi can’t make sense of.

Only when Kokichi gets a bundle of cloth thrown at his face, does he realize that Momota was taking off his button-up shirt to give to Kokichi.

Kokichi immediately throws it back, “Gross, I don’t want your dirty laundry.”

Momota throws the cloth back, “I’m not going to let the only other person stuck in this confined space get sick. You feel like you just slept in a freezer.”

Kokichi doesn’t throw it back this time. Screw it, he really is freezing, his pride can put itself on hold for now. He slips on the shirt. It’s a bit difficult with how little room there is, but he manages.

Kokichi rolls up the bloodied sleeves, “Hm. I suppose this makes up for stuffing my clothes down a toilet.”

“ _Hey,_ you told me to do that.” Momota protests.

“Doesn’t change the fact that you did.”

“You’re impossible.” This time Momota does turn away, indicating he’s done talking.

No matter, Kokichi has been long done with this conversation. He wraps his arms around himself, relishing the residing warmth from the shirt’s owner. Hardly a minute passes when he hears barely audible snores from Momota.

In hindsight, it was a good thing that Momota woke him up. Despite all of Kokichi’s snide remarks, he does feel grateful for Momota’s concern. It is irrational, and by all means Momota shouldn’t be worried about Kokichi in the slightest, but it’s nice to not be treated like a villain sometimes.

He’ll have to remember to thank Momota for this later.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, this is a really late update. But! It is also my longest chapter (6.6k words!) so hopefully that makes up a little for it. The reason for the late update was mainly just a lot of insecurity. In turn, that directly affected my productivity. 
> 
> And I just want to thank everyone who has read, kudo'd and commented on this fic. What helped me to bring out of this slump was re-reading all the kind comments and remembering there are people who enjoy this fic. Really I can't express how much it means to me. Thank you so much for all of your continued support!
> 
> Up Next: A very stressful trial for everyone involved


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trial begins.

Kaito’s never been the type to have difficulty falling asleep. Normally it was because of the exhaustion of exerting himself throughout the day. The next morning he would awake refreshed and ready to tackle the day again. Instead of that, Kaito blinks open his eyes to pain, grogginess and nausea. The metal interior instantly refreshes his memory. His back is sore from being cramped into a sitting position the entire time. Ugh, that’s not going away anytime soon.

He’s surprised to see that Ouma isn’t sleeping, but instead appearing to be in deep thought. It’s a bit weird seeing Ouma in Kaito’s shirt. The sleeves of the shirt Kaito gave him are ripped off and instead bandaged around Ouma’s leg.

Kaito tries to shift in the exisal to get more comfortable. Ouma notices.

“Momota-chan’s still alive?!” he fakes an exaggerated gasp before pouting, “Aw boo.”

“Sorry. I’ve got no plans on kicking the bucket anytime soon.”

Ouma smirks, more amused than anything, “Now I have to explain a super-duper complex plan to an idiot...” Ouma drifts off and stares expectantly at Kaito, probably hoping for an indignant defense from him.

Yeah no. He’s not gonna give Ouma the satisfaction. Kaito keeps his mouth shut.

Ouma shrugs at his lack of response, “I’m going to take care of the talking, but you need to handle maneuvering the exisal around. That means walking the exisal and showing the our home-video.”

Kaito blinks, “You’re... giving me control of the exisal?”

Kokichi grimaces, “Ughhhh you’re so much stupider than I thought. Yes, you’re driving the exisal.” Ignoring the insult, that’s surprising. He thought there would have been an argument over the controls.

“Oh yeah,” Ouma continues, “I almost forgot to mention. The body discovery announcement already sounded. Phase one is going pretty smoothly.”

“Okay...” Kaito says slowly, “So what’s phase two of the plan?”

“That’s easy! We take the exisal down into the trial ground. I’ll give Monokuma some bullshit about wanting the trial to be more ‘entertaining.’ If that doesn’t work, which I already know it will, I’ll lie and say my legs are busted or that Harukawa will kill me on sight.”

“What comes after that?”

“Depends. You wouldn’t understand even if I tried to explain.”

Kaito opens his mouth to argue. How could Ouma expect this plan to work if he didn’t explain it to him?

“I’ll have you know-”

“Well well well!” Monokuma’s voice cuts him off, “What do we have here?

Kaito jolts in surprise. Monokuma’s here? Didn’t Ouma take the exisal here to stay out of sight? Ouma’s hand slaps over his mouth before he can even think of something to say.

“Why, one of the monocubs of course!” Ouma exclaims, in his unmistakable voice. Kaito remains completely still.

Monokuma tilts his head, “Whazzat? I dunno what a ‘monocub’ is, but I sure know what a rule-breaking student is!” Monokuma’s eyes shine dangerously.

Ouma leans forward, “Oooh! Someone broke the rules? Who is it? Who? I wanna see an execution!”

Monokuma’s expression dims, “...Well, not yet. But if you don’t get out of that exisal and enter the trial grounds, I’ll be executing you! Now hop to it, ya troublemaker!”

Worry bubbles up. They can’t step out of the exisal, they barely got this plan in motion. It’s too soon to stop it now. He glances at Ouma to see his reaction. There’s not a trace of worry. On the contrary, Ouma seems all too delighted. A smile stretches across his face.

“That would be such a boorring trial. Either I’d get voted right away or Harukawa-chan would murder me in the courtroom.” Ouma pauses thoughtfully, before switching the mic to Kaito’s voice, “After all, they can’t be sure who the victim is. I thought you would’ve been the type to want to confuse them, y’know?”

For once, Kaito’s glad that Ouma is a convincing liar.

Monokuma perks up at that, “Wow! And I thought nobody came close to my levels of sadism. If you’re offering more spice in the trial, who am I to refuse?”

Ouma giggles, switching the exisal back to his own voice “I knew you’d understand! Ethics mean nothing when it comes to pure entertainment!”

“Puhuhu, if you’re that insistent then by all means, go down to the trial grounds before the other delinquents arrive. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to start preparing for someone’s execution.” Monokuma toddles off, disappearing from sight.

Ouma clicks off the mic before leaning back and finally removing his hand from Kaito’s mouth.

Kaito takes this as the green light to speak, “That went... really smooth.”

“Oh ye of little faith.” Ouma scoffs, “Monokuma’s not omnipotent. He’s fairly easy to manipulate as long as you hide your hand. Now minion, take us to the trial grounds.”

“I have a name.” Despite Ouma’s rudeness, Kaito obeys.

The controls for movement are exceedingly simple. It’s a simple joystick for movement that is fairly receptive to the slightest movement. It’s not nearly as clunky as he would have expected, but it is slow.

Kaito clears his throat, “You never really explained to me what the rest of ‘phase two’ of the plan was.”

“Yeah I didn’t.” Ouma doesn’t offer more information.

Kaito huffs, annoyed, “Care to explain what it is exactly?”

“It’s to confuse our classmates as to if you’re really dead.”

“But didn’t we make that video as proof that I am dead?”

“They’ll pull some reverse-psychology bullshit and convince themselves that you killed me. We’ve already planted enough evidence to convince them. The rest goes without saying.”

“So the endgame plan is to for me convicted as the blackened for killing you?”

“I just finished explaining that to you Momota-chan. Should I be worried?”

“No- that’s not it. I was just thinking-”

“Don’t hurt yourself.”

Momota scowls, but proceeds anyways, “It’s just- if I’m executed, and only then do you reveal that you were alive, then wouldn’t that pretty much guarantee the end?”

Ouma’s teasing grin instantly disappears, and turns completely neutral. The look is oddly more creepy than his twisted psychotic smile.

“That’s assuming you believe me when I say there’s an audience out there. You shouldn’t be trusting a liar’s words so easily Momota-chan.”

“But it would, wouldn’t it?”

“Getting ideas of playing the hero aren’t we?” Ouma’s usual light-hearted tone is instead bitter and mocking, “There would be no reversing a unjust execution, but that’s only if you’re planning on playing the woeful, tragic martyr.” he spits the last few words with no little amount of disgust.

“Then... we’re changing the plan to that.”

Ouma doesn’t respond. Ouma’s gaze loses its harsh intensity as thoughts cloud over. Even then he doesn’t betray a single thought out of the hundreds that must be going through his head right now. It’s the closest Kaito has ever been to Ouma- both physically and mentally- and yet he still feels light-years away from remotely understanding the boy in front of him.

Ouma’s brows furrow before he slowly speaks, “Are you...” the words would have been drowned out if the exisal wasn’t already dead quiet.

What was that? Quiet isn’t a word that describes Ouma, and yet that’s exactly what Kaito heard. A soft unspoken question that showed concern. Kaito forgets all previous instances of Ouma’s cruel lies. A thought springs up that Ouma might try to offer some words of comfort, however unnatural or unwanted they might be.

The next thing out of Ouma’s mouth isn’t the continuation to his unfinished question.

Instead it is a sharp, cruel laugh, “I was wondering how I was going to trick you into sacrificing yourself, but here you are, offering to die yourself!” he giggles, before falling into a laughing fit.

“You- you were what?” Any good thoughts morph to a hurt anger.

Ouma only keeps laughing, the sound bouncing off the enclosed metal interior. His smile only grows- to the point of being unhinged.

“You’re so-” he wheezes, “stupid. It’s just so funny I can’t-” the laugh comes out more choked, “-I can’t believe it.”

“Shut up!” Kaito grabs Ouma by the shoulders forcefully. His short fingernails dig down deep enough to leave a mark, even through the fabric. Ouma’s laughter cuts off, but the grin remains.

“You think this is a laughing matter? You think I fucking want to die?!”

Ouma reverts back to the same childish tone, “Nope! Momota-chan has dreams and aspirations for his future! You want to be a role model of inspiration to your sidekicks and live in forever in cherished memories!” Ouma’s smile disappears, and his voice drops dangerously, “But if you plan to leave a mess for me to clean up, then how could anyone be grateful?”

Kaito lets him go with a shove. Fuck. Fuck. Sharp stabs of pain accompany his quickened heartbeat. This isn’t worth it. Ouma’s riling him up for shits and giggles. The pain builds up in his throat. It releases into a unrelenting cough. It’s anything but a surprise when metallic blood spills out of his mouth. Even with crimson decorating his hands, Ouma doesn’t react. He stares impassively, waiting for Kaito to stop. It’s chilling how coldly Ouma regards him. This is the type of person who could manipulate others and lie so well. Someone whose emotions are as easily controlled as another body part. There was never a person underneath the lies. It’s all just calculations. Kaito dying is simply a less favorable outcome.

Ouma’s serious expression disappears, turning more neutral, “Plus Momota-chan! It’s not as if you could get out of the exisal without anyone noticing me! You’re plan’s pretty half-baked. It wouldn’t work so stop getting the idea of playing hero.”

Kaito turns his head away so he can avoid looking at Ouma and his array of fake faces.

Ouma doesn’t let him off that easy, he waves a hand in front of his face, “Earth to Momota-chan! The elevator’s open. Hurry on up already.”

Kaito takes care to elbow Ouma while reaching for the controls. A slight movement and the exisal shifts forward into the trial ground. They are the first of the students to arrive.

Monokuma sits above on his garish throne, “Well, well, well. It’s about time you arrived!

Ouma pushes Kaito to reach the mic, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world! So am I just going to show up immediately or am I coming in after they decide I’m alive?”

“Puhuhu! It’s funny you should mention that. I have a little side room just for the occasion.”

On cue, a metal door normally hidden behind a curtain reveals itself. It opens slowly, revealing a dark room.

“You wait in there until you hear your cue. Consider it a personal favor by your benevolent headmaster.”

It’s impossible to see what’s inside the room through the darkness, but there’s something ominous about it. It’s definitely a trap. There has to be something that would ruin the plan inside. There’s no way either of them should-

“Okey-dokey! Whatever you say Monokuma!” Ouma chirps.

Kaito elbows him sharply, switching the mic off, “The fuck are you doing? That has to be some kinda trap.”

Ouma narrows his eyes, “Please, the chances of that are slim. Just go ahead and do it.”

Without further pointless arguing, Kaito obliges. When the exisal fully passes the threshold, the door behind them begins to close until they’re left alone in the darkness.

It’s quiet, and nothing happens. Ouma was right. Monokuma hasn’t placed anything here to screw them over. The silence stretches on until there’s distinct sound of voices. It’s difficult to hear their voices but not impossible.

It’s easy to hear Monokuma. He’s shouting the rules again with jubilant glee, unable to hide his eagerness for the students to tear each other apart.

Then the trial starts. With one question trying to be answered. Who was the victim?

Kaito catches most of what they’re saying. Ouma and himself are the only possibilities since they are the only ones not present. The conversation loops itself around and around saying that Kaito has to be the victim. The majority end up trying to goad Monokuma into bringing Ouma out despite having no proof.

“I can’t see what you look like right now Momota-chan, but I’m assuming you’re jaw is dropping to the floor at how predictable everyone is.”

Kaito doesn’t grace him with a response. Their goal is to extend the trial for as long as possible with as many plot twists as possible. The main one being that Ouma is the victim.

“Alright mister suspect, that’s your cue!” Monokuma shouts.

As soon as the door opens, Kaito guides the exisal to jump directly to his own podium. Ouma gives him a questioning look, but before he can grab the mic, Kaito takes it for himself.

“Hey guys! Sorry I’m so late. I kinda just hopped in here and dozed off. Anyways what’s going on guys?” Kaito speaks, in his own voice. Ouma stills, but doesn’t move to fight for the mic or the controls. If they fought over the mic now, the resulting scuffle may expose both of them.

The rest of the students start trading shocked looks, Shirogane being the first to be able to form words “M-Momota-san?! You’re alive? Then that means Ouma-”

With a quick flick of a switch, Kaito’s voice changes to Ouma’s, “Stuuupid! That was a lie!"

Kaito smashes the key to make the exisal jump again, this time to land behind Ouma’s stand. He shoves the mic towards Ouma to let him take over. Ouma blinks before quickly regaining his composure.

“Ahahaha! Oh man, you should have seen the looks on your faces. Didja really think the game would be continuing if I was dead?”

“Ouma-kun!?” Kiibo sputters in shock.

“The one and only! Now would you mind filling me in? The part about falling asleep wasn’t a lie, I got sooo bored sitting in here, that I kinda forgot what was going on.”

“What are you saying?! We’re here because you murdered Momota!” Yumeno shouts.

“What?! I would never do such a thing! Are you sure you’re not the one who killed Momota-chan?”

“Nyeh?!”

Despite talking to Yumeno, Ouma’s eyes are glued onto Shuichi, expectant. Kaito’s gaze moves to Shuichi as well. Shuichi’s eyes stare right back. A question burning behind his tightly shut lips.

“...Is that really you Ouma-kun?”

“Who else would I be Saihara-chan?”

“Then why are you hiding? Show us your face.”

Kaito shifts his head to get a better look at Harumaki’s reaction. Her mouth is pressed into a thin line. She looks like she has half a mind to jump on the exisal and prove Ouma right.

“Nyeh! If you’re here, then that means you killed Momota!

Shuichi immediately jumps to alarm, “No. We can’t jump to conclusions. It’s too soon to decide anything yet. While the role of victim is limited to Momota-kun and Ouma-kun, we can’t say the same for the blackened.”

It is amazing how quickly everyone jumps to their own defense. Ouma just leans back, content to watch them squabble.

“Are you saying the blackened is one of us?!” Shirogane screeches, a terrified look in her eyes

“There would be no reason for that-” Kiibo points accusingly towards the exisal, “-to even be here if the occupant is innocent.”

Yumeno balls her fists angrily, “Yeah! Nobody here would murder Momota ‘cept him!”she glares at the exisal.

Shuichi puts his hands up defensively, “I’m not accusing any of you. I only want to eliminate even the slightest of doubt first so we don’t get carried away in assumptions.” When no one interrupts him, Shuichi continues, “The first place we should start is to establish the time of death. If we’re going to figure out the victim, we need to figure out when was the last time either of them were seen...” he drags his gaze analytically across the courtroom. Nobody speaks, waiting for Shuichi to guide them again.

Was it always like this? They weren’t always this reliant on Shuichi, but now, he’s practically running the entire trial. Shuichi’s changed so much since Kaito first met him. He’s proud of Shiuchi. A pang of envy stings through him. Right now, Shuichi is more of a leader than he ever was.

Yumeno previous gusto is replaced by an intense anxiety. “I saw Momota,” she swallowed thickly, “He was locked in the hangar bathroom.”

“When?” Shuichi presses.

“About midnight...” Yumeno sweats profusely, similar to a thief caught in the act. Her nervous glances aren’t helping her either.

“Anyone else visit Momota-kun?” Shuichi asks.

When nobody answers, Shuichi frowns, “I saw Momota-kun alive at approximately 1am. He looked well, but was still trapped inside the hangar’s bathroom.”

“We stormed the exisal hall shortly after the morning announcements at 8am.” Kiibo interjects, “There’s a seven hour gap, but we can ascertain that the murder likely happened within that time-frame.”

The revelation only further distresses Shirogane, “How can we learn anything from that?!” she cries out.

Kiibo crosses his arms in thought, “Is there any evidence to suggest another presence after Saihara-kun?”

“There were a lot of things lying around in the hangar,” Shirogane mutters, “but it doesn’t matter since it was impossible for anyone else to enter.”

“No, couldn’t they have hi-jacked an exisal to bypass security?” Kiibo offers.

A light-bulb flashes above Shuichi’s head, “And that would explain why the exisal inside the hangar was so battered. The only thing strong enough to damage an exisal like that, is another exisal.”

Ouma sniffles, finally speaking up, “Yeah... it got so intense I accidentally killed poor Yumeno-chan while she was inside...”

“I’m right here!” Yumeno protests angrily.

Ouma gasps, “It’s a miracle!... or not!” he giggles,

Kiibo snaps, irritated, “Stop trying to divert the trial with your-”

Ouma cuts him off, “Sorry to disappoint, but I just got bored and wanted to see a giant robot battle. You were right on one count though Saihara-chan! The exisals really can’t take more than one punch from each other.”

Momota turns to see Harumaki’s response to the lie. Her eyes are firmly onto the ground. She remains impassively silent as before. She knows Ouma’s lying- she was there- but her jaw stays clenched shut. It doesn’t make sense. Why would she keep quiet at a class trial?

“No.” Shuichi firmly states, “That’s a lie.”

“Huh? I dunno what you consider fun, but a one-sided exisal beatdown is pretty boring by most standards.” Shuichi can’t see it, but contrary to Ouma’s bored tone, he is grinning in anticipation of Shuichi’s next words.

“There was blood inside the crushed exisal. Someone was inside the exisal when it caved.”

Kiibo eyes light up in the revelation, “Then it had to have been a fight between two parties. Nobody would purposefully use an exisal against oneself.”

The gears turn faster in Shuichi’s head, “It couldn’t have been Momota-kun. He was locked inside the exisal bathroom. It had to have been one of us.”

“Wait, but how would any of us be able to do that?” Shirogane questions, “Ouma-kun has the exisal remote, not us.”

The piece of the puzzle clicks into place,

“The electrohammer.” Shuichi says softly.“During the investigation there was a used electrohammer where the exisals were guarding Monokuma. The only explanation would be someone used the electohammer, and then proceeded to enter the exisal."

“I had my electohammer!” Yumeno declares.

“I as well.” Kiibo quickly agrees.

“M-me too!” Shirogane exclaims.

Shuichi looks firmly at the floor, hesitating to speak.

“Me. You can say it. I was the only one without an electrohammer.” Harumaki sighs, “I told you I forgot to charge it. I didn’t have it because it would have been nothing more than a prop.”

“Harukawa-san,” Shuichi says gently, “Did you visit the hangar last night?”

She holds her gaze directly towards Shuichi, who won’t look at her. He’s afraid to see what Momota is seeing. A calm resolution and acceptance of what is to come.

“If you’re asking if I killed Ouma, then yes, I did.”

Nothing Harumaki could have said that would have been heavier than the bomb she dropped on the courtroom. Kaito’s jaw drops. No, there’s no way Harumaki could have killed Ouma, he’s alive right to Kaito for fuck’s sake! In fact, Ouma is casually leaning back in the exisal, seemingly content to watch the events unfold. Kaito swallows the lump in his throat. No, if things go really wrong, he can always just open the hatch to the exisal and end it there. Ouma’s too weak to stop him if things go too awry. It’s fine. It is fine.

Yumeno looks ready to vomit, “You- hngh- you murdered someone?” the others, minus Shuichi, have the same horrified, fearful look.

Shirogane covers her mouth, “Ouma-kun’s the victim?!”

Kiibo expression softens, hopeful, “Then Momota-kun is alive?”

Shuichi doesn’t look surprised, but his face twists in anguish, as if he knew all along.

“Harukawa-san, please recount the scene for us.” Shuichi’s voice comes out quiet but firm. His body is too stiff, he doesn’t want to go through with this. The weight of the people relying on him, Kiibo, Yumeno and Shirogane, are forcing him to keep pushing forward. He’s the one leading them now, but there is no joy in it, only sorrow.

Harumaki drops her stare to the ground, “It’s as you said, I hi-jacked the exisal with the electrohammer to enter the exisal hangar. When I entered, Ouma saw me and attempted to crawl into an exisal he had in the hangar. I brought down the arm on the exisal once to disable it. I tried to question him but he was just as annoying as always. I crushed the exisal again and that was the moment of death. I killed him.”

Shuichi grip on the podium tightens, “What about afterwards? What did you do after killing Ouma?”

She sucks in a breath, hesitating before speaking, “...I went to Momota-kun. He was still locked up in the bathroom, but he was dying from a poison. I ran off to retrieve it but when I returned he had locked me out.”

“He locked you out?” Shirogane asks disbelievingly.

“He... I gave him the antidote through the bathroom window. I think he set Ouma’s dead body under the press and planted evidence. And even now he’s-” her voice cracks, and she stops speaking, a watery film covers her eyes.

For once Harumaki looks uncertain, her face betraying a tidal wave of emotion. The silence hangs heavy. Nobody dares to speak over her.

“But... it’s over now. I was mulling it over, and I realized what you were trying to do. It’s okay Momota. You don’t need to protect me anymore. Please come out of the exisal.... It’s time for the vote and... I just want to see your face again.”

There were no words Kaito could say even if he had the mic. A lump in his throat took any words he could have spoken, it took his breath away in the worst way possible. It was impossible to breathe, to move to do anything but absorb all the sorrow in the courtroom. Haruamki’s resolution to die and the raw anguish in her voice was too much, it broke something in Kaito.

She shouldn’t be going through this- she shouldn’t be defending him- lying to protect him-offering herself on a silver platter to die for him- he would never want this- why would she ever think he would want this- this isn’t-

“Wow, I’m honestly hurt. You guys really want to believe I’m dead.” Kokichi’s voice is next to him and echoes all around the courtroom.

Harumaki closes her eyes, shaking her head “Stop it. It’s not going to change anything Momota... Please stop.” her voice is barely audible.

“Before you decide anything, I thought you would like to see this.” Ouma’s voice is monotonous, factual... cautious.

Ouma doesn’t bother to ask Kaito to move the exisal, probably aware of how tense Kaito is. Ouma does it himself, moving the exisal to present the video camera to the trial.

“A video camera?”

Caution returns to Shuichi’s face, “What... is on that video?”

Ouma smiles, something nobody but Kaito can see. Kaito shivers. The atmosphere is so heavy it could crush someone alive- everyone else is already suffocating- but Ouma acts as if nothing more than a cloud is overhead. Kaito’s suddenly glad that Ouma’s the one holding the mic, he doesn’t think he could have adopted nearly as casual a tone, or delivered the next line nearly as perfectly as Ouma does.

“The moment the murder happened of course! The moment your beloved Kaito Momota died.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lies? In MY courtroom? It's more likely than you think.
> 
> I was a bit worried about writing a dialogue intensive scene for the trial, but I think it turned out pretty well! I wanted to include the full trial, but splitting into two seemed to be the better decision. Think of this as the intermission, (minus the monocub-theater).
> 
> I am still extremely grateful for all the positive feedback I've been getting for this fic ;u; and I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply to them all but I promise every single comment is read many times over, and have brightened many days of this author's life. Comments and feedback are always welcome! Thank you for continuing to read thus far! 
> 
> Next Chapter: The end of the trial and the lies.


End file.
